The entry into the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race by television personality and cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz has thrust this contest into the national spotlight.

Normally, the announcement of a candidate’s declaration to run for anything other than national office would attract attention only in the state where the candidate is running, but this was not the case when Oz, 61, officially announced last week what had been rumored for several weeks: He will seek the Republican nomination for the seat now held by Sen. Pat Toomey of Zionsville, Lehigh County. Toomey has chosen not to run for re-election after completing his second six-year term next year.

I can only imagine the expletives uttered in private by the announced candidates in both parties upon hearing the news. Some might ask why he would seek a $174,000-a-year Senate seat when he earns an estimated $20 million annually from his TV show, which will now be put on hold because of the Equal Time provision. His net worth is estimated at $100 million, so he obviously is financially secure if he wishes to seek new horizons. Despite his lack of political experience, Oz has one of the biggest advantages that helps propel candidates to victory - name recognition. He won’t have to spend millions of dollars to make himself known to Pennsylvanians, although he may have to spend considerably to get to know our Keystone State.

Those who don’t have this name recognition must be strategic in getting it. Remember when Gov. Tom Wolf began his campaign in 2014. With his only political experience being former Department of Revenue Secretary, Wolf was a virtual unknown.

Launching a major TV blitz early in the year with catchy and folksy commercials, Wolf overtook the Democratic much better known front-runners, U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz, state Treasurer Rob McCord and former state Environmental Protection Secretary Katie McGinty. He then went on to defeat incumbent Republican Tom Corbett in the general election.

Oz, however, will have hurdles to overcome. One of the first questions that others and I have is why is he not running for office in New Jersey, where he has lived for almost all of his adult life. Oz lived in Cliffside Park in the Garden State with his wife of 36 years, Lisa. They have four children.

Born in Cleveland, Oz changed his voter registration residency last December to the home of his in-laws in Bryn Athyn, an affluent home-rule borough in Montgomery County.

Oz joins a list of other well-known personalities who overcame the term “carpetbagger” to win election to the U.S. Senate - most notably Robert F. Kennedy and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Both were elected in New York.

“Carpetbagger” refers to political candidates who seek election in an area where they have no local connections. Oz supporters say the fact that their candidate shows up in voters’ living rooms daily because of his frequent exposure on TV gives him a local connection. I find that weak argument to be borderline laughable. His supporters point out that Oz earned his graduate and medical degrees at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Oz also will have to answer to those who say he has promoted pseudoscience and alternative medicine that resulted in criticism by physicians, government officials and well-known publications for endorsing unproven products and for giving nonscientific advice. Some refer to him as a “celebriquack.”

A famous British Medical Journal-published study found that more than half of the recommendations given by Oz were not backed up by evidence or contradicted sound medical research.

After appearing on Oz’s TV show during the 2016 presidential campaign, former President Donald Trump appointed him to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition. In his Senate announcement, Oz was complimentary about Trump, who had endorsed Sean Parnell for the Senate seat. This endorsement propelled Parnell into front-runner status until Parnell suspended his campaign several weeks ago following a judge’s ruling that awarded child custody to Parnell’s wife and also ruled that Parnell had committed abusive acts against her. What is unclear is whether Oz saw Parnell’s withdrawal from the race as his cue to jump in with both feet.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was reported that Oz’s discussions were influencing Trump and his decision to take hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, as a cure for COVID-19. In June 2020, the Food and Drug Administration revoked emergency use authorization of the drug, saying that it was not believed to be effective against COVID-19.

Oz’s announced candidacy will mean that TV stations which broadcast the Sony Pictures nationally syndicated Dr. Oz Show will suspend airing the program because of the Federal Communications Commission’s Equal Time Rule. The program was taken off the air immediately in the Pennsylvania and New York markets. If the program continued to air, it would have given other Senate candidates access to air time equal in duration to Oz’s exposure.

If Oz wins the Republican primary, Sony plans on having Daphne Oz, his daughter and a chef, author and TV personality, take over his TV time slot with her own program, “The Good Dish.”

Oz is the son of Turkish-born parents and holds dual citizenship. Oz served in the Turkish Army to retain his Turkish citizenship. Oz is a Muslim, saying he has been influenced by the mysticism of the Sufi Muslims from central Turkey and by the ideas of Emanuel Swedenborg, the 18th century Swedish theologian.

The other announced Republican Senate candidates are Kathy Barnette, Jeff Bartos, John Debellis, Sean Gale, Bobby Jeffries, Ronald Johnson, Martin Rosenfeld, Carla Sands, Everett Stern and David Xu.

There are 12 Democrats running for Senate, including the front-runners, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb and Montgomery County Commissioner Chair Val Arkoosh.

Each state has two U.S. Senators. Our other senator is Democrat Robert Casey of Lackawanna County, whose term expires at the end of 2024.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t see Oz as an antidote for Pennsylvania’s ills.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.