His campaign to be the next
Republican senator from Pennsylvania
is facing one major problem:
Republicans in Pennsylvania.
By OLIVIA NUZZI
r.ozforsenateis headquartered in a patch of strip
mallnexttoa Mexicanrestaurant in Montgomery County,
Pennsylvania, where thecandidate’s father-in-law,
Dr. GeraldLemole,maintains a medical office down the
roadfromtheLemolefamilyfarm, three acres overlooking
thePhilmontCountryClubthat the candidate, who seems
toliveinNewJersey,hasclaimedashis official place of residence.
Fivedaysintotherace,therewasnodiscernible election-related
activityofanykind.Nostaff.Noyardsigns. No signs of life at all.
ExceptforJohnPalma.
“AreyoulookingforMehmet?”heasked.
I saidthatI was.
TheownerofJohnSebastianPainting and Renovating (slogan:
yourworldincolor,whenquality and neatness count),
Palmais a tattooed47-year-oldItalian American father of three
fromthearea.Heis friendlybutuninterested in bullshit, the kind
of guymoreinclinedtotalktoa stranger with ease about matters of
philosophythanofmeteorology.AsI approached the building, he
wascrouchedonthepavement,applying coats of white paint to the
concretemarkersoftheparkingspaces that spanned the lot. He’d
meanttocompletetheprojectduringthe workweek, but it was just
aswellthathecoulddoit nowwhennobody was likely to bother
him.Orthathadbeentheidea,anyway, before he noticed the car
withD.C.platesrollup.HeassumedI worked for the candidate.
“Doyouhaveanappointment?”heasked. I said that I didn’t. “Is
heexpectingyou?”I saidthathewasn’t. I explained who I was and
thatI wastryingtospeaktosomeone—anyone—from the cam-
paign,whichhadsofarprovedelusive.
RepresentativesforTheDr.OzShow, on which he could still be
seeninsomemarketsfora primedaytime hour (the program has
sincebeencanceledbySonyPicturesTelevision) and from which
hestillpostedclipstohissocial-media accounts (including seg-
mentsonsleepapnea,weightloss,and Martha Stewart’s advice
fora “stress-freeholiday”),directedpolitical inquiries to the per-
sonalemailaddressofCaseyContres,a 32-year-old operative who
hadmanageda losingU.S.Senatecampaign in Colorado before
spendinga yearontheHillaschiefof staff for a Texas congressman.
NowhewasDr.Oz’scampaignmanager, and part of managing the
campaignseemedtomeanignoringquestions about the campaign.
Dr.Ozhadannouncedhisintentionto seek the Republican nom-
inationfortheopenPennsylvaniaseat with a glossy commercial
producedbyJamestownAssociates,once the ad-maker for once-
presidentDonaldTrump.Hethenappeared for lighthearted chats
withSeanHannityofFoxNews,whom he had befriended at the
startofthecoronaviruspandemic,when the men bonded over the
Photo-illustration by Joe Darrow