This is fucking hilarious:
A TV advertisement and an airplane.
That’s what U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman will launch this weekend in an attempt to contrast his Pennsylvania roots — born and raised — with Republican Mehmet Oz’s longtime residency in New Jersey, a central theme of the attacks against him for months.
Mr. Fetterman, facing Mr. Oz in one of the country’s most important federal races, will go up on the airwaves across Pennsylvania this weekend with an advertisement that calls the Republican nominee “Doc Hollywood,” and — flashing images of the candidate’s New Jersey mansion of a video of him kissing his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — says he’s “not one of us.”
The Democrat will also send an airplane over the beaches of the South Jersey shore, carrying a banner that will read, “Hey Dr. Oz, Welcome Home To NJ!
It’s an attempt by Mr. Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s sitting lieutenant governor, at viral marketing, yes, but it’s also meant to hammer home the value of his own authenticity — something he’s trying to make a staple of his campaign.
“I only got involved in politics to make my town in Pennsylvania a better, safer place,” Mr. Fetterman says in the ad, telling Mr. Oz to “save your money, Pennsylvania’s not for sale.” The ad will run on cable statewide and on broadcast in Erie, Pittsburgh and Scranton.
A lot of voters from Philadelphia and the suburbs hit up the Jersey Shore for the summer so this is a good move.
FYI:
As it nears two months since he suffered a stroke, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee in one of the country’s most important U.S. Senate races, is signaling that a return to the campaign trail may not be too far away.
In response to a series of Post-Gazette questions on Wednesday about the candidate’s health status as the calendar continues into July, a campaign spokesman said Mr. Fetterman is “feeling really well” and will be “on the campaign trail soon.”
Mr. Fetterman has been recovering from a stroke that he suffered a few days before the May primary, a contest that he won to become the Democrats’ torch-bearer for a seat that could determine control of the Senate.
“He is about 90% back to full strength and getting better,” spokesman Joe Calvello said.
The update on Mr. Fetterman’s health status comes as Republican campaign groups — quiet, to this point, about Mr. Fetterman’s absence from the trail — start to ramp up their messaging on the topic, aiming to draw a contrast with their candidate, cardiothoracic surgeon and TV celebrity Mehmet Oz, who has been campaigning across the state.
As for Oz:
Mehmet Oz is trailing in polls. A key Republican has yet to endorse him since the celebrity doctor won the GOP nomination for Pennsylvania Senate more than a month ago. And Oz has gone dark on the airwaves since May 21 — even as his Democratic rival John Fetterman burnishes his brand on TV as a political outsider, and paints Oz as a carpetbagger from New Jersey.
This is not the general election kickoff in a pivotal Senate race that Republicans were hoping for.
The shaky start to Oz’s general election campaign, coming off a hard-fought primary that took a recount to resolve, is prompting finger-pointing in Pennsylvania’s GOP circles. Some Republicans are arguing that Oz should do more to unite the party, reach deeper into his pockets to fund his campaign, and attack Fetterman more aggressively.
The Democratic hopeful has been setting the pace of the campaign despite not setting foot on the trail since he suffered a stroke in mid-May.
“I don’t have much confidence in their campaign,” said Arnie McClure, chair of the Huntingdon County Republican Party. He said he’s been in contact with Oz’s team but hasn’t received answers to multiple queries.
“[Oz] came in a distant third in my county, so I called them up and said, ‘You need to talk to our people to change their mind and our mind and I’ll help you do that.’ And I don’t even hear back. What the hell?”
Some GOP donors have urged Oz, a multimillionaire, to contribute more of his own money to jump-start his general election campaign, according to two people familiar with their conversations. Oz loaned himself more than $12 million in the primary, according to the most recent campaign finance filings.
Oz’s team has responded to donors that “we’re going to spend what we need to spend,” one source said.
Oz isn’t the only major GOP candidate in Pennsylvania to take some serious hits. Over on the Governor’s race:
Governor Tom Wolf vetoed a bill sponsored by GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano that would allow election poll workers to serve in any election district in the Commonwealth.
Wolf wrote that “this bill makes it possible for bad faith partisan operatives to target a specific neighborhood or group of voters in an attempt to challenge the eligibility of voters, make poll workers’ jobs more difficult, and disrupt the counting of ballots. This will only serve to slow down the election process and restrict access to the ballot box.”
The bill was designed so poll watchers could clearly observe the pre-canvassing and counting of all ballots. This includes having clear line of sight to observe the process within six feet or less.
Also:
A Manheim Township movie theater has canceled the premiere of “Return of the American Patriot,” a film featuring several prominent right-wing Pennsylvania figures, most notably State Sen. Doug Mastriano, who is the Republican candidate for governor.
The movie was scheduled to premiere July 16 at the IMAX theater in the Penn Cinema on Airport Road in Manheim Township but was canceled by the venue following pushback from members of Lancaster Stands Up.
“We did have plans with the group, but once we learned of the nationalist populist agenda, we canceled the event,” Penn Cinema said in a message to a Lancaster Stands Up member, Suzy Wurtz, which was posted online.
Wurtz said she reached out to the Cinema as a concerned mom worried about Christian Nationalists trying to "set up shop" in the county.
A preview of the film featured interviews with Mastriano and other right-wing figures in Pennsylvania like Audit the Vote cofounder Toni Shuppe and FreePA founder Tabitha Valleau.
The trailer billed the film as an exploration of the populist right movement in Pennsylvania, comparing that movement to the American Revolution and castigating contemporary Democratic leaders, like Gov. Tom Wolf, as tyrants.
Also, what a cry baby:
Not one to talk much to the media, Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano’s typical outlet to communicate with voters is his campaign Facebook page — a direct, unfiltered catch-all that includes weekly live streams and Q&As with his supporters.
That continued this week as Facebook was the main venue — to this point — for the state senator’s response to news that a group of Republican leaders had bucked their party to endorse his opponent, Democrat Josh Shapiro.
Mr. Mastriano shared a link on his Facebook page to a video stream in which two conservatives, Val Finnell and Joe Sterns, hit back against the Republicans for endorsing Mr. Shapiro and taking steps to form a super PAC to support him.
In the video, Mr. Finnell, Pennsylvania Director for Gun Owners of America, and Mr. Sterns, a political consultant, label the Republican officials relics of the past and RINOs — “Republicans in Name Only” — unrepresentative of the grassroots of the modern GOP.
The list of Shapiro endorsers included two former U.S. representatives, Charlie Dent and Jim Greenwood; former state House Speaker Denny O’Brien; former Lt. Gov. and longtime state Sen. Robert Jubelirer; and former state Supreme Court Justice Sandra Schultz Newman.
Also:
Health and Democracy are on the ballot this year and we need to get ready to keep Pennsylvania Blue. Click below to donate and get involved with Fetterman, Shapiro and these Pennsylvania Democrats campaigns:
