Guest Editorial: Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race will be critical

The wide-open race for the seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey could determine control of the Senate in next year’s election.

The race is expected to be among the nation’s most competitive.

Most troubling is that some of the Republicans considering the race are strong supporters of former President Donald Trump, one of the most divisive and racist presidents in U.S. history.

Among the latest Republicans to consider joining the race is George Bochetto, a prominent Philadelphia lawyer and Republican, whose cases have often landed in the public spotlight.

Bochetto said last week that he is seriously considering running for Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate seat.

In a brief interview, Bochetto, 69, said he is “looking at it very, very seriously and it’s very likely” that he will decide to run. Bochetto has considered running for mayor many times in the heavily Democratic city of Philadelphia, and ran briefly in 1999 before ending his candidacy.

In August, Bochetto won a judge’s ruling preventing Philadelphia from removing a 144-year-old statue of Christopher Columbus in a dispute that highlighted tensions over views of exploration, Italian-American history and colonialism that changed the lives and cultures of native people.

Bochetto also helped write the defense brief in Trump’s second impeachment trial earlier this year, he said.

The most prominent Republicans already running are conservative commentator Kathy Barnette, real estate investor Jeff Bartos and Carla Sands, Trump’s ambassador to Denmark.

The Republican primary field for U.S. Senate also includes Mehmet Oz — best known as the host of TV’s “Dr. Oz Show” — who said he’s moved from New Jersey to run. Oz, a cardiac surgeon, gained fame as a protégé of Oprah Winfrey. The longtime resident of Cliffside Park, New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from New York City, now says that he has lived in Pennsylvania since last year, even though he films the show and practices medicine in Manhattan. Oz is hoping to ride his celebrity status to political office, similar to Trump.

Also expected in the Republican field is David McCormick, CEO of one of the world’s largest hedge funds, who is moving from Connecticut in anticipation of running, advisers say.

The Democratic field features candidates with far more electoral experience.

The Democratic field includes John Fetterman, the state’s lieutenant governor and former mayor of the small steel town of Braddock. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for Senate in 2016.

Also running are Malcolm Kenyatta, a second-term member of the state House of Representatives from Philadelphia; Val Arkoosh, a former chair of anesthesiology at Drexel University College of Medicine who chairs the three-member board of commissioners in Montgomery County; and Conor Lamb, a third-term member of Congress from suburban Pittsburgh and former federal prosecutor who hails from a prominent political family. State Sen. Sharif Street has also expressed interest in the seat.

The Democratic field features candidates with far more electoral experience — although far less personal wealth — than the Republican field.

The high-stakes race will be critical for Pennsylvania and the nation

Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune

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