The Rooster Who Would Be Senator

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Six weeks from Election Day, Foghorn Leghorn is running one of the more unusual Senate campaigns in the country: a veteran entertainer and former corporate chief asking Kentucky voters to send him to Washington on an old-school message of lower spending, lighter regulation and what he calls “government out of the henhouse.”

For SHOWBIZ readers, the more consequential part of Leghorn’s résumé is everything that came before the campaign. He spent decades as a performer, later ran Enormocorp, produced a movie about his own life and eventually became chief executive of ACME — the company Wile E. Coyote would later sue over years of allegedly defective products. During a leaner stretch, Leghorn also worked as a croupier at Yosemite Sam’s casino. Enormocorp ultimately collapsed after a much-ridiculed leadership episode involving Daffy Duck; Leghorn has since described the experience as a lesson in delegation.

Those business ties are now part of the race. ACME’s political arm has supported Leghorn, while an outside group called American Frontier Action has spent heavily on advertising that favors his candidacy. Federal filings show Yosemite Sam among the group’s major funders. The super PAC is legally separate from the Leghorn campaign and cannot coordinate its independent spending with him. Opponents have also circulated old performance clips and publicity stills in an effort to make Leghorn’s entertainment career part of the political conversation.

SHOWBIZ sat down with Leghorn at his campaign headquarters, a converted barn outside Louisville, to discuss his economic pitch, his business record and the industries that made him famous before he entered politics. Campaign manager Miss Prissy sat in. The interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Why are you running?

Ah say, ah say, somebody’s gotta tend the henhouse, boy, and lately the folks in Washington are just sittin’ on the eggs. Ah’ve been in public life longer than most of these fellas have been alive. I know business, I know entertainment, and I know when somebody’s spendin’ money they ain’t got.

What is the core of your campaign?

Spend less. Regulate less. Quit borrowin’ from the grandchildren. Ah want a balanced budget amendment, sunset dates on programs that never seem to set, and an audit of anything with a government seal on it. Pay attention, boy!

SHOWBIZ is an entertainment trade. What would a Senator Leghorn want Washington to do for film, television and animation?

First thing is keep the work here. Ah don’t care whether it’s a barn, a backlot or a soundstage — a job’s a job. Ah like incentives when they bring real work and real payroll with ’em. Ah don’t like handouts where everybody cuts a ribbon and the crew still has to move three states away.

Would you support federal production incentives?

Ah’d look at anything that keeps American crews workin’ and makes sense on paper. But ah’m a fiscal conservative, son. You show me the jobs, show me the return, and show me the exit ramp. No subsidy oughta become an heirloom.

You’ve been both management and talent. Where do you come down on collective bargaining in entertainment?

A contract oughta mean somethin’ whether you’re signin’ it from the executive floor or the dressing room. Workers have a right to bargain. Companies have a right to know what they’re agreeing to. Then everybody oughta live by the deal they made.

Working performers say streaming residuals are opaque and difficult to audit. Is that something Congress should address?

Ah’m wary of Washington writin’ everybody’s contract for ’em, but transparency is different. If a check is based on numbers, the person gettin’ the check oughta be able to understand the numbers. That seems plain enough even for a rooster.

Studios and media companies continue to consolidate. Would you support tougher antitrust scrutiny of entertainment mergers?

Ah support competition. Ah also support lookin’ at the facts before declarin’ every merger a fox raid. If a deal kills competition, hurts workers or leaves one fella ownin’ every feed trough in town, regulators oughta look hard at it.

Your campaign presents your business experience as a qualification. Enormocorp went bankrupt.

That it did.

You handed control of the company to Daffy Duck.

Temporarily.

Miss Prissy: Yeeesss. Temporarily.

He made a disastrous decision and the company collapsed.

Son, if every executive who hired the wrong duck was barred from public office, this country would be governed by three accountants and a crossing guard. Ah learned from it. You hire people for judgment, not volume. Ah learned that one the loud way.

You were ACME’s chief executive during the Coyote case. The company was accused of selling defective products and concealing what it knew about them. What responsibility did you have for that?

Ah was the chief executive, so the buck stopped at my desk whether ah liked where it landed or not. Ah believed then and believe now that customers have a right to safe products and companies have a right to defend themselves in court. Ah also believe in tort reform. Those positions can coexist, boy.

Did you know, while you were CEO, that ACME products were failing at the rate alleged in the case?

Ah knew we had claims. Ah knew we had testing. What ah did not sit there doin’ was personally inspect every rocket skate, dehydrated boulder and spring-loaded contraption that came off the line. That is why companies have engineers, son. The question is what management does when the engineers bring bad news upstairs.

And did they?

Some did. Some reports reached me later than they should have. Some decisions made under me are decisions ah would make differently now. Ah’m not gonna turn a corporate deposition into a campaign slogan.

(Miss Prissy closes the binder in front of her without looking up.)

Do you still hold ACME stock?

It’s in a blind trust.

American Frontier Action has spent heavily on advertising that supports you, and Yosemite Sam is one of its major funders. Does that relationship create conflicts for you on technology or gaming policy?

First off, that outfit is independent. They don’t ask me what to buy, where to run it or how loud to holler. Sam is a personal friend. Friendship don’t write my votes. Ah’ll look at every bill the same way ah look at a fox near the henhouse: eyes open and one hand on the gate.

Miss Prissy: Independent. Expenditure. Committee.

Have you discussed the group’s ads with Sam?

No, sir. Ah’ve discussed lunch with Sam. Ah’ve discussed football with Sam. Ah once spent forty-five minutes discussin’ whether a roulette wheel could be made square. The ads are their business.

You worked at his casino.

Ah worked a lotta jobs, son. Show business will teach a rooster humility if the box office don’t do it first.

What about AI and digital replicas? Performers are asking for consent and compensation protections.

A performer owns his face, his voice and his feathers as far as ah’m concerned. Innovation’s fine. Stealin’ a man’s performance and callin’ it innovation is somethin’ else. Put the rules in plain English and make sure the little fella can enforce ’em.

Your opponents have been circulating old clips of you in elaborate costumes, including the 1962 short Mother Was a Rooster and a barnyard revue photograph with Bugs Bunny. Does your entertainment past complicate your campaign?

That was the job. A rooster’s gotta have range. Ah played a mother in ’62 the way Olivier played a Dane. If voters want a Senator who never wore a costume, they best stop electin’ actors.

In one interview you seemed to minimize how well you knew Bugs, even though you worked together for years.

Ah was answerin’ a political question like a politician, and that ain’t always the same as answerin’ like a man. We worked together a long time. He was good at what he did. Better than good.

Last question. What do you want an undecided voter to know about you?

That ah know how to make a payroll, how to lose one, how to get back up after it, and how to tell when somebody’s sellin’ you a ten-dollar rooster for twenty bucks. Ah’m loud, but ah ain’t new at this.

(Leghorn pauses, then looks toward Miss Prissy.)

Did ah answer that one?

Miss Prissy: Yeeesss.