Douglas Friedline was a Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

 born political campaign director in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Friedline worked exclusively with independent and third party candidates with the goal of breaking the two party oligopoly in American politics. Friedline gained most of his notoriety during the 1997 election of his home state in which he helped then professional wrestler Jesse Ventura

Jesse Ventura

James George Janos , better known as Jesse Ventura, is an American politician, the 38th Governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003, Navy UDT veteran, former SEAL reservist, actor, and former radio and television talk show host...

 become governor of Minnesota.

Political career

Doug Friedline is best known for his unorthodox and often irreverent style of advertising. In 1997 Friedline used action figures to represent candidate Jesse Ventura in a number of television spots. In radio ads Ventura was cast in in the role of a super hero fighting special interests and the opposing candidates. Friedline used similar tactics again in the 2006 Florida Election when he masterminded a multimedia blitz for Reform Party

Reform Party of the United States of America

The Reform Party of the United States of America is a political party in the United States, founded in 1995 by Ross Perot...

 candidate Max Linn

Max Linn

Max Linn is an American politician from the U.S. state of Florida. He was the Reform Party nominee for governor of Florida in the 2006 election. He was defeated by Republican Charlie Crist.-Background:...

. Television, internet, and newspaper spots featured Linn as a classic cartoon hero in the vein of Superman

Superman

Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...

 battling various incarnations of Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 candidate (and now governor) Charlie Crist

Charlie Crist

Charles Joseph "Charlie" Crist, Jr. is an American politician who was the 44th Governor of Florida. Prior to his election as governor, Crist previously served as Florida State Senator, Education Commissioner, and Attorney General...

.

In 1999 Friedline spearheaded an exploratory committee for the Presidential run of Donald Trump

Donald Trump

Donald John Trump, Sr. is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice have...

. In 2001 Friedline was the campaign manager for independent NJ Gubernatorial candidate Bill Schluter. Friedline has also worked in one form or another on political ventures involving John McCain, Bruce Springsteen, Ralph Nader, Ted Glick, and Joe Piscopo.

AnyTown, USA

Friedline was a subject of the documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 Anytown, USA. The film followed his attempts to get independent candidate Dave Musikant enough write-in votes to become mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of Bogota, New Jersey

Bogota, New Jersey

As of the 2010 Census, Bogota had a population of 8,187. The median age was 38.6. The racial and ethnic composition of the population was 61.0% White, 9.4% Black or African American, 0.8% Native American, 9.8% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander, 14.8% some other race and 4.1% reporting...

 in the 2003 election.

Death

Friedline was found dead in his rented apartment just days after the completion of the Max Linn campaign in St. Petersburg, Florida, in November 2006. He has suffered a massive heart attack

Myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

. Friedline, at the age of 47 had 5 stints inserted into his heart after forgoing a quintuple bypass and was on a number of medications.