The Campaign is about an election for Congress in the 14th district of North Carolina, where Congressman Cam Brady has been running unopposed for the last 8 years.
Unfortunately, he can't keep it in his pants and loses voter trust when he dials the wrong number and instead of calling his mistress he leaves a message on the answering machine of a family, who overhear it while they are saying grace. In his following appearances, he tightens the sling around his neck by saying things like, "When the family plugged the phone into their answering machine they became consenting adults."
In Washington D.C., where money does the talking, the campaign financing Motch brothers (get it?) decide that Brady is no longer a viable candidate and make sure that this time around he will have an opponent. The only viable option, however, is helpless Marty Huggins, a sweet but hapless family man that could never make his daddy proud. The Motch brothers provide him with a campaign manager who introduces himself with the words, "I'm here to make you not suck" and starts grooming Marty, his house, his family, even replaces his dogs and feeds him lines.
When Marty does surprisingly well in the first debate, Brady understands that he could indeed be a threat and the gloves are off. Both race towards a baby there for the sole purpose of being kissed. As Marty is about to kiss the infant, Brady initiates a fight and swings to hit his opponent, who ducks in time and, well, Congressman Brady punches a baby. Down go his poll numbers.
Then the campaign ads and rhetoric get fiercer and - as Marty sports a mustache - Brady accuses him of sympathizing with the Al Qaeda, likening him to another man with mustache: Saddam Hussein. Marty's reply to this is, "I am not beholden to Cam Brady's accusations. I am only beholden to one man and that is the greatest American that has ever lived: Jesus Christ, who happened to have a mustache."
After a mushy, eye-opening moment with his son, Brady decides to bury the hatchet with Marty Huggins and swings by his house, where he is treated to a number of drinks. Afterwards, he gets in the car and Marty, who has learned a lot from his campaign manager, calls the police to report a drunk driver. The video from the police car shows Brady running away from the cop, stealing the police car and running over a cow. Again, not good for the numbers.
When during another campaign, Marty accuses him of communism by citing from a manifesto Brady wrote as a 2nd grader running for class president, titled "Rainbowland", things again get out of hand and the two candidates get in a fist fight. This time, as Marty ducks, Congressman Brady punches Uggie, the dog from The Artist. After this incident and the worsening poll numbers, Brady's family up and leaves and the next Huggins campaign video shows Marty with Brady's son, showing that he is a father to Cam jr. that Brady can never be.
Brady's revenge to this is having sex with Huggins' wife Mitzi and using the sex tape in his next campaign ad. This prompts his long time campaign manager to leave and somehow gets Brady a two-point bump in the polls. After the ad airs, when Marty and Brady are at the same hunting even, Marty gets out of the car and shoots Brady in the thigh, calling it a "hunting accident", which improves his poll numbers.
In his all important meeting with the Motch brothers, Marty is informed that the 14th district is to be sold to China, with cheap laborers coming in along with factories. This they call "insourcing" and they want Marty's support and urge him to use the term in the remainder of his campaign as often as possible. Marty, realizing that he is on a slippery slope, refuses and walks out of the meeting.
This prompts the Motch brothers to throw their support back into Brady's camp and Marty's campaign manager changes sides. Also, Ms. Brady is paid to return to the campaign. A "new and improved Cam Brady" again takes over the polls. On election day, Marty presents his final campaign ad, in which he promises honesty and confesses to pretty much every bad deed he has ever done.
As voting comes to a close, we see that the voting machines were made by the Motch brothers and Marty, who according to exit polls was up by about 2000 votes loses to Brady. The two candidates have a last, honest talk before Brady makes his supposed victory speech in which he decides he would also like to tell the truth and, finally, withdraws from the race, making Marty Huggins the new Congressman for North Carolina's 14th district. In the end, he heads a committee taking down the Motch brothers.
Zach Galifianakis is his usual awesome self and Will Ferrell appears here in one of his better roles.
6/10
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