THE ISSUE

As Mike Wereschagin, Brad Bumsted and Sam Janesch of The Caucus, an LNP Media Group watchdog publication, wrote in the Sunday LNP, Dr. Mehmet Oz brings unrivaled name recognition and considerable personal wealth to the Senate Republican primary in Pennsylvania, an enviable toolkit for a political rookie. But like any doctor making a new house call, he brings his own baggage, too. And it didnt take long for opponents on the left and right to start rummaging through it. Chief among the criticisms being leveled at Oz is that hes a carpetbagger whose primary residence appears to be in New Jersey, not Pennsylvania. (The term carpetbagger first was used after the Civil War to describe Northerners who took up residence in the South hoping to profit from Reconstruction.)

Lets first address the most straightforward criticism of Oz: As The Caucus journalists pointed out, his primary residence over the last few years has been a mansion appointed with a movie theater, wine cellar, gym and indoor basketball half-court atop The Palisades, the steep cliffs above the Hudson River, in New Jersey.

But where is Ozs home now exactly?

The Caucus reported what is known, including this: Ozs Pennsylvania voting record will be barely a year old when his name appears on a ballot for the very first time.

He registered to vote in Pennsylvania the month after the 2020 election. His first vote in Pennsylvania, in the May primary, was cast by absentee ballot, according to state voter records. His New Jersey voter registration remained active as of early December, according to that states voter portal, though that does not indicate he voted in both states. Unless you affirmatively cancel your voter registration when re-registering in another state, the old registration can remain active until that state purges its voter roll, which can take years, The Caucus journalists explained.

Ozs Pennsylvania voter registration in Bryn Athyn lists an address that, according to Montgomery County property records, belongs to his mother-in-law.

He told WGAL that he spent his formative years in the Philadelphia area. Some of us spent our formative years in other places, too, but that doesnt make us current residents of those places.

He also said his wifes family has been here for 100 years, but that is meaningless. One does not become a Pennsylvanian by marrying into a family of Pennsylvanians.

Were guessing that Oz saw an opportunity in Pennsylvania, when U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey announced he would not seek reelection next year, and took it.

The residency requirement isnt a high bar: The U.S. Constitution requires only that senators be at least 30 years old and live in the state they want to represent at the time of the election.

It must be pointed out that carpetbagging isnt only for Republicans. Hillary Clinton won a New York U.S. Senate seat in 2000 as a newly arrived Chappaqua resident. Robert F. Kennedy, brother of President John F. Kennedy, successfully ran to represent New York state in the U.S. Senate in 1964, even though his home was in Virginia.

If Ozs tenuous residency status was his only obstacle, he likely would emerge unscathed by the slings and arrows that met the announcement of his candidacy.

But, as The Caucus journalists noted in Sundays edition, Ozs long television career five years as a medical guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show followed by his current shows 13-year run also has begun serving opponents in much the same way a long congressional career does: by offering a well of potentially damaging statements and stances.

A lot of video is produced over the course of 13 years in daytime television.

As The Caucus journalists noted, conservative activists have posted clips of Oz speaking favorably about red flag laws, which allow authorities to temporarily confiscate firearms from people deemed a danger to themselves or others, and the expansion of Medicare Advantage.

Were mostly concerned about the health-related misinformation Oz has disseminated. Hes a noted cardiothoracic surgeon, but he also has promoted health approaches not backed by science.

And, after nearly two years of enduring a pandemic, the last thing we need is another politician even one who is a trained medical clinician who doesnt adhere to science.

As The Caucus journalists noted, left-leaning publications such as HuffPost have pointed out the on-again, off-again controversies Oz has generated with his medical commentary. The British Medical Journal published a study in 2014 saying more than half of the medical advice Oz gave on his show was either not supported by evidence or was wrong.

A year later, 10 physicians and professors wrote to the dean of Columbia Universitys College of Physicians and Surgeons to protest Ozs position on the faculty. Dr. Oz is guilty of either outrageous conflicts of interest or flawed judgments about what constitutes appropriate medical treatments, or both, they wrote, noting that members of the public are being misled and endangered.

Oz has championed remedies with mostly imaginary benefits: green coffee extracts and raspberry ketones to lose weight and burn body fat, for instance. His since-debunked claims about weight-loss supplements made with those ingredients which he called magic and a miracle in a bottle landed him before a U.S. Senate subcommittee in 2014.

An article titled Whats Wrong with Dr. Oz? in the journalof the Missouri State Medical Association noted that Oz has devoted several shows to psychics and those who claim to speak to spirits, and on another show, interviewed a so-called miracle healer regarding the healers use of iridology. According to this widely debunked, bizarre belief, each part of the iris corresponds to a specific area of the body, and a persons state of health can be diagnosed by examining particular regions of the iris, the journal noted.

Complementary and alternative medicine treatments are disturbingly under-regulated. And Oz doesnt seem to be very discerning about what he promotes.

This we know to be accurate: Daytime television has far less rigorous standards for truth than medical researchers. And it takes a lot of money to buy a mansion in New Jersey.

It also takes a lot of money to buy a U.S. Senate seat. Oz has spent nearly $4 million on television ads, a sum first reported by Inside Elections this far exceeds the ad spending of any of the 17 other Republican candidates who have filed to run for Toomeys seat.

Buckle up, Pennsylvanians. This race is going to be a wild one.

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Dr. Oz brings a lot of baggage to the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania. It merits examination. [editorial] - LNP | LancasterOnline