On the list of potential political vulnerabilities, ties to New Jersey are rarely a campaign killer; for all the jokes, New Jersey has offered some of the greatest musical, culinary and cultural additions to the country.
But the campaign of John Fetterman, the Democratic candidate for the open Senate seat in Pennsylvania, has been repeatedly nagging his Republican opponent, Mehmet Oz, for living in New Jersey before announcing his campaign in the Keystone State.
In his latest such post on Twitter, Mr. Fetterman enlisted Nicole Polizzi, a cast member of the “Jersey Shore” franchise better known as Snooki, and a self-described “hot mess on a reality show,” to chide Dr. Oz for choosing to leave New Jersey “to look for a new job.”
“Personally, I don’t know why anyone would want to leave Jersey,” Ms. Polizzi says in the video, which is framed to look like a spot from Cameo, a website that allows users to pay for personal video messages from celebrities (and, apparently, Snookis).
The video, a tongue-in-cheek accusation of carpetbagging, was posted to Mr. Fetterman’s Twitter account, where he has been using memes and other internet “trolling” tactics to remind voters of Dr. Oz’s ties to the Garden State.
Mr. Fetterman, who is recovering from a stroke in mid-May, recently copied pictures of Dr. Oz’s mansion in New Jersey from a 2020 spread in People magazine to match a recent campaign ad set that featured Dr. Oz appearing to speak from a room in the expansive home. And Mr. Fetterman’s campaign paid to fly a banner welcoming Dr. Oz back to New Jersey along southern Jersey Shore beaches, according to NJ.com.
Dr. Oz has said he lives in Bryn Athyn, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia about 12 miles from the New Jersey border.
Asked for comment, a press officer for the Oz campaign directed reporters to a tweet from Mr. Oz’s account that did not respond to any residency questions, but rather a screenshot from a newscast from a 2013 incident where Mr. Fetterman had pulled a gun on Black jogger after saying he heard gunshots in the neighborhood. (Mr. Fetterman has defended his response to this episode.)
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
