ICYMI: WSJ: “IT’S ‘HOLLYWOOD LIBERAL’ VS. ‘WALL STREET INSIDER’ IN PENNSYLVANIA NEGATIVE-AD FIGHT

“I’ll tell you one person I’d never vote for is Dave McCormick”

PENNSYLVANIA – New reporting from the Wall Street Journal highlights just how nasty the Pennsylvania GOP primary has become. The piece emphasizes the significant impact the barrage of negative advertising is having on voters:

While the candidates are introducing themselves in some upbeat ads, interviews with voters in the area suggest that the negative ads are resonating most.

“I’ll tell you one person I’d never vote for is Dave McCormick,” said Ernest Greer, 74, a retired manufacturing worker in York County. “He’s a hedge-fund manager, and I think they ought to do away with hedge-fund managers, myself…They buy businesses, close it down and move jobs overseas.”

Mr. Greer cited ads from the Oz campaign in which Mr. McCormick is shown praising China. “His outfit did a lot of business in China…If he was the only choice, I wouldn’t vote for U.S. senator.”

See below for further highlights from the piece and read the full story here.

The Wall Street Journal

It’s ‘Hollywood Liberal’ vs. ‘Wall Street Insider’ in Pennsylvania Negative-Ad Fight

Dr. Oz and former hedge-fund CEO David McCormick spend millions to tarnish each other in a key Senate GOP primary

Voters in Pennsylvania knew almost nothing about David McCormick and Mehmet Oz as political figures when the men started running for the Republican nomination to the Senate a few months ago. Since then, more than $37 million in largely negative advertising from the two candidates and their allies has gone a long way to filling the gaps.

As a result, the contest features two front-runners with highly successful professional résumés but political profiles speckled with ad-driven doubts that have prevented either one from taking command of the race, polling and interviews with voters show.

Mr. Oz’s campaign casts Mr. McCormick as a “Wall Street insider” and highlights his former firm’s investments in China. Mr. McCormick’s allies portray Mr. Oz as a “Hollywood liberal”

“All you’re really hearing is them dissing each other,” said Maryann Bricker, a Republican voter in the central Pennsylvania borough of Carlisle. “It’s all very confusing to me, because you don’t know what to believe.” Her takeaway: “I don’t personally care for either one of those candidates.”

TV ads and online posts gave Rob Greiner misgivings about Mr. Oz., even after Mr. Trump endorsed the physician earlier this month. “My gut is telling me that he’s been more leaning liberal for many years. It seems now he’s making a switch,” said Mr. Greiner, who backed both of Mr. Trump’s presidential campaigns.

Mr. Greiner, 45, a security supervisor at a nuclear plant, said he feared Mr. Oz would turn into a “Republican in name only”—or RINO—“and I’m not sure that’s in Pennsylvania’s best interests.’’ Mr. Greer said the same of Mr. McCormick: “He’s a RINO-type Republican, and I can’t stand them.”

For Mr. McCormick, Wall Street ties are a point of sensitivity. Connections to the finance sector have helped him raise significant sums: More than 60 employees of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. contributed to his campaign during the first quarter of 2022, FEC records show. Mr. McCormick is married to Goldman partner Dina Powell McCormick, a senior national security official in the Trump administration.

And yet several voters cited Mr. McCormick’s hedge-fund background, as portrayed in negative TV ads, as a reason to treat his candidacy with caution.

Mr. Oz has been running TV ads touting his endorsement by Mr. Trump. Mr. McCormick has answered with an ad that shows him with a group of supportive motorcyclists, who hold up a Trump banner.