{p class=”krtHeadline”}HARRISBURG (TNS) — Republican Mehmet Oz has two new TV ads out in Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race as Democrat John Fetterman began airing the first in a series that his campaign says will be tailored for regional markets.
{p class=”krtText”}New ads aren’t limited to the Senate race. Democratic governor candidate Josh Shapiro, the state’s attorney general, has a new spot out exposing ties Republican opponent Doug Mastriano has to the QAnon conspiracy theory movement.
{p class=”krtText”}Oz’s campaign unveiled ads titled, “Balance,” which calls out extremism, and “What Doctors Do,” which highlights what the TV celebrity and retired cardiothoracic surgeon wants to do to help Pennsylvanians.
{p class=”krtText”}“Guys like John Fetterman take everything to the extreme. Why are we letting murderers out? Why is the solution always tax and spend?” Oz says in the “Balance” ad. “Extremism on both sides makes things worse. We need balance, less extremism in Washington.”
{p class=”krtText”}In “What Doctors Do,” Oz observes that Pennsylvanians are struggling with gas and food costs and seeing their retirement accounts dwindle. He claims Fetterman would support higher taxes which would worsen inflation.
{p class=”krtText”}After again hitting on the balance and extremism message, Oz says, “I’m not a politician. I’m a heart surgeon, more importantly, a husband and a dad. I’m running to improve people’s lives. It’s what doctors do.”
{p class=”krtText”}Oz’s message on extremism was rebuked by the Fetterman campaign manager Brendan McPhillips, who called it “a new level of hypocrisy” in a release in which the campaign targeted Oz for his positions on abortion, the validity of the 2020 presidential election and guns.
{p class=”krtText”}Meanwhile, Fetterman’s initial ad in the new series is titled, “Garbage,” and is running in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre TV market.
{p class=”krtText”}The series, the campaign said in a release, will feature “validators, footage and cultural landmarks from the varying regions.”
{p class=”krtText”}“Garbage” features former Scranton sanitation worker Patrick McNichols, who talks about Fetterman’s agenda helping working families.
{p class=”krtText”}“John has a plan to fix this economic mess and take on the politicians,” McNichols said.
{p class=”krtText”}He goes on to jab Oz for supposedly backing tax hikes on seniors and the middle class and being from New Jersey.
{p class=”krtText”}“As a retired garbage man, we know what to do with out-of-state trash like that,” McNichols says.
{p class=”krtText”}Also this week, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has a new TV ad out taking aim at Oz for his opposition to abortion. That ad has Dr. Gary Gordon of Pennsylvania describing what it was like before the now-overturned Roe v. Wade ruling.
{p class=”krtText”}“When I was in medical school, abortion was not yet legal, so young doctors were trained to treat victims of back-alley abortions,” he says. “Too often, women died. I thought those days were long behind us, but not so, with Mehmet Oz.”
{p class=”krtText”}Gordon notes Oz’s support for the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe and returning abortion rights back to states to decide.
{p class=”krtText”}“We can’t let Mehmet Oz take women back to a very dangerous time,” Gordon says.
{p class=”krtText”}Fetterman has said he would support abolishing the filibuster in the Senate so Democrats, if they hold the chamber, can codify abortion rights into federal law.
{p class=”krtText”}The DSCC ad is part of its $33 million ad buy announced earlier this year in states where races could tip the balance of power in the Senate, such as Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona.
{p class=”krtText”}Shapiro’s ad features a narrator describing Mastriano’s “prominent role” in the QAnon movement, three of its “most absurd and dangerous conspiracy theories” and includes a clip of Mastriano being honored with a sword at a QAnon conference in April, the campaign said.
{p class=”krtText”}Among the conspiracy theories QAnon pushes are: the 9/11 attacks were “an inside job,” Adolf Hitler faked his death and that COVID-19 vaccines make people gay.
{p class=”krtText”}“QAnon, a fringe right-wing group peddling dangerous conspiracy theories, and who’s an important part of their movement?” the narrator asks. “Doug Mastriano, honored as a hero.”
{p class=”krtText”}Mastriano is showing accepting a sword at an April event in Gettysburg that the Philadelphia Inquirer described as a “far-right Christian conference” featuring QAnon conspiracies.
{p class=”krtText”}Shapiro’s ad ends by telling viewers that Mastriano has shared QAnon content on Twitter 52 times.
{p class=”krtText”}©2022 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit pennlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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