Pennsylvania Senate race tightens between John Fetterman and Dr. Oz
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A new poll suggests a tightening race between John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz in the race to replace U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey.
KDKA-TV political editor Jon Delano has more on the poll and reactions from the campaigns.
Six years ago, Toomey won reelection by 1.5 percent — 87,000 votes out of 6 million votes cast — against Democrat Katie McGinty, a typically close election in Pennsylvania.
The race to take his seat is likely to be just as close. So forget all those notions of Fetterman beating Oz by a landslide.
"We all expected this race to get closer, and that is certainly what we've seen happen," says Berwood Yost, a pollster at Franklin & Marshall University.
Yost says his latest poll shows exactly what is happening. Last August, Fetterman had a nine-point lead over Oz, 45 to 36. Today, it's just three points, 45 to 42.
Yost says many Republicans are coming home to Oz.
"The main change that we've seen in the past month is that Republicans have really started to embrace the Oz candidacy," says Yost.
Oz campaign spokesperson Barney Keller said the crime issue is resonating with voters.
"I think it's a tie race right now. The reason all the momentum is with Dr. Oz is because people are learning about John Fetterman's stances on the issues. They're learning that he is the most pro-murderer candidate in the entire country," says Keller.
"It's really a sad attack that they're trying to make," says Fetterman campaign manager Brendan McPhillips. "I can't believe that anybody would be considered pro-murder. That's just an obnoxious description."
McPhillips says his candidate is the only one who has dealt firsthand with crime – in Braddock.
"As mayor of Braddock, he ended gun deaths for a five-and-a-half-year period in Braddock working hand in hand with the police and the community," McPhillips said.
But the Oz campaign is so convinced that crime is its winning issue that they've erected a billboard in Braddock comparing Fetterman's record on crime with toilet paper.
"John Fetterman is about as soft as a roll of toilet paper on crime," says Keller.
"We had a good chuckle about it in the office," says McPhillips. "I don't think anyone paying serious attention to the election would look at John Fetterman and the work he's done in Braddock and believe that he's soft on crime."
Whether crime trumps other issues like abortion rights, health care, and the economy remains to be seen, but political insiders predict a close election.
"Always expected it would be a close election. I don't want to predict exactly how close, but we're feeling good about how things are going for us," says McPhillips with Fetterman
"I absolutely do think it's a close race," says Keller.
While Republicans are coming back to Oz, Fetterman still leads among Democrats and independents, but all the negative ads on both sides are affecting their favorability with the electorate.
Forty percent view Fetterman favorably while 46 percent view him unfavorably. It's worse for Oz, whose favorability is 34 percent with 53 percent viewing him unfavorably, but that is an improvement for him from the August poll.
Local political analyst Khari Mosley credits the Oz campaign for turning things around, at least somewhat.
"They've been really able to put the focus back on John Fetterman over the last month or so," says Mosley.
Mosley says Republicans around the country are using the crime issue to deflect from issues like abortion rights. Oz calls himself pro-life while Fetterman says he's pro-choice.
It's not clear yet which issue works best, says Mosley.
"Are Republicans going to be able to mobilize people around crime," Mosley said. "Or are the Democrats going to be able to mobilize young voters, particularly women, around the abortion issue?"
Now polls are just a snapshot of the current time, not a predictor of what will happen on Nov. 8.
What's clear is that there is a lot at stake for both sides, which means millions more will be spent convincing you how to vote.
