‘Why lie to me?’ Pennsylvania Senate Race Carpetbaggery Offensive Rivals – CBS Pittsburgh

HARRISBURG. Senate elections.

A broad race for the state seat being vacated by two-term Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania has attracted the wealthy and well-connected, and hosts Jeff Bartos and George Bochetto is grasping it.

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Bartos, a real estate investor from suburban Philadelphia, considers transplant recipients “political tourists” and repeatedly reminds audiences that he is a “Pennsylvania for life.”

Bochetto, a Philadelphia lawyer who has lived in the city for 45 years, suggests that his foreign opponents shouldn’t spend millions of dollars trying to convince voters that they are actually Pennsylvanians.

“They should be honest about it and just say it bluntly, ‘Look, I don’t live in Pennsylvania yet and I’m not a citizen of Pennsylvania, but I’m coming because there’s a provision in the Constitution that allows me to Bochetto. said in an interview. “And that’s fine. But why lie to me? ”

And they’ve spent millions: Carla Sands, Mehmet Oz – heart surgeons best known as hosts of “The Dr. Oz Show” — and David McCormick are broadcasting across Pennsylvania, chasing a Senate seat that is practically out of reach for Republicans in the blue states they are fleeing.

It remains unclear whether the massacre is a pivotal issue, or whether Pennsylvania’s Republican voters – in an increasingly nationalized political environment – are concerned that delegates are How deeply attached their elected to this state.

On Saturday, the candidates began their weeklong tour of closed-door question-and-answer sessions with members of the state’s Republican district caucuses. The first stop was the party’s central caucus.

“It’s certainly going to be a problem for some,” said Richard Stewart, co-chair of the central caucus. “And we’ll see how big of a problem that is.”

For Bartos, it is so.

He raised it time and time again, including on Monday night at a town hall over the phone.

“I want to be clear to all the runners out there, newcomers to Pennsylvania for the first time, visiting places for the first time: You can’t save Main Street if you don’t even know how to find it. ,” said Bartos — the party’s 2018 nominee for governor.

While he’s raising money for Pennsylvania businesses struggling during the pandemic, his competitors are “living in mansions overlooking Manhattan, on Connecticut’s Gold Coast or abroad,” Bartos said. with the crowd.

The field was newly opened after Sean Parnell, a candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump, dropped out of school after losing a custody battle in which his estranged wife, who was sworn in, recount stories of Parnell’s abuse.

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Trump did not turn to endorsements again.

Sands, 61, a native of Pennsylvania, moved to California in 1987 – pursuing work as an actress and chiropractor, while helping run her late husband’s real estate investment company – before when generously joined Trump’s 2016 campaign and became ambassador to Denmark.

She sold her homes in Malibu and Bel Air, returned to the US in early 2021, and rented an apartment overlooking the Susquehanna River with views of the state Capitol.

Oz, 61, is a long-time resident of Cliffside Park, New Jersey, where his mansion overlooks the Hudson River across from Manhattan, but he now says he’s renting his and his wife’s home in a wealthy suburb yes of Philadelphia.

Oz’s main claims to Pennsylvania are that he grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, not far from Philadelphia, attended medical school in Philadelphia, and married a native of Pennsylvania.

McCormick, who grew up in Pennsylvania before leaving to attend West Point and serve in the Gulf War, filed his candidacy Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission. He bought a home in Pittsburgh, where he spent a decade in the business before leaving in 2005 to take up senior jobs in the administration of then-President George W. Bush.

Since 2009, he has lived in Connecticut, where he works for one of the largest hedge funds in the world, Bridgewater Associates. He just stepped down as CEO to pursue his campaign.

McCormick, perhaps more than the other two, has played up his Pennsylvania roots, calling himself “true Pennsylvania” on his discovery campaign website and airing TV commercials depicting his childhood. him on his family’s Christmas tree farm in Bloomsburg.

There have been growing pains.

Oz, like many candidates for office, has toured the Pennsylvania Farm Show in recent days and in a video posted on social media posing next to a pile of potatoes, stated that “what I I also know that Pennsylvanians are very patriotic.”

The beginner program is only four months away from May 17.

Bochetto, a lawyer, said he would rather talk about himself and why he is a great candidate, and let his opponents shoot themselves in the foot.

When asked if he thinks they’ll turn around and leave Pennsylvania if they lose the preliminary, Bochetto said, “There’s no doubt in my mind. There’s no doubt about it.”

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