In Pennsylvania, Mehmet Oz’s attack ads against John Fetterman have turned it into an actual competitive race, with the Cook Political Report moving the race back to “toss up” status. Part of that can be attributed to Oz’s aggressive attack ads, like this one that points to a 2015 interview in the Nation, where Fetterman said, “I’m pro legalizing marijuana, but I go even further than some of my colleagues because I’m for decriminalizing across the board.” That may not sound so appealing as Pennsylvania grapples with a fentanyl overdose crisis.
Ordinarily, the candidate under attack would go out and do a lot of campaign stops and interviews, responding and clarifying his position on drugs. But Fetterman . . . obviously still can’t campaign normally. Fetterman held his first rally in Philadelphia — the single most important Democratic stronghold in the state — on September 24. And he’s clearly nowhere near his usual self yet:
After coming onstage to AC/DC’s “Back in Black,” Mr. Fetterman spoke to a crowd of about 600 for about 12 minutes, at times with halting speech and on occasion stumbling over at least one of his lines as he recovers from a May stroke.
As he sarcastically pledged not to pander, he joked that “the Eagles are so much better than the Eagles.” He clearly meant to say the Steelers. (The crowd rallied to help him, unleashing an E-A-G-L-E-S chant).
Fetterman will be in York County Saturday and Bucks County Sunday — with a campaign event scheduled early so as to not conflict with the Eagles game. Fetterman’s health is likely to keep him limited from now until Election Day.
Oz has the opportunity to out-hustle Fetterman in the final month — and sometimes this makes a difference. Back in 2013, in a special House election in South Carolina, Democrats thought they had a shot to knock off the somewhat infamous former governor, Mark Sanford. In the final days, Sanford did roughly twice as many events as his opponent, Elizabeth Colbert Busch. On election night, it wasn’t all that close, as Sanford finished with 54 percent and Busch finished with 45 percent.