Doug Mastriano, the Republican candidate for Pennsylvania governor, was reportedly registered to vote in New Jersey until last year, opening himself up to the kind of carpetbagger accusations that have dogged Dr. Mehmet Oz.
The underdog GOP candidate grew up in the Garden State and voted in Jersey for 28 years until 2010, the New Jersey Globe reported.
Mastriano, who claims the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, remained registered and eligible to vote in New Jersey until notifying authorities that he was no longer living there in 2021.
In the meantime, the staunch Trump supporter moved to Pennsylvania where he won a state Senate seat in 2018.
There is no indication that Mastriano, who attended the Jan. 6 rally but says he didn’t storm the Capitol, voted or even tried to vote in both states at the same time.
But the revelation comes as a reminder of Mastriano’s roots in New Jersey, a less-than-welcome biographical detail for a wannabe Keystone State governor.
Oz, a fellow Republican running for U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania, is also a longtime New Jersey resident. He moved to Pennsylvania to run for the seat left open by the retiring Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa.
The TV doctor’s opponent, Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, has relentlessly needled Oz about his Garden State roots, claiming he doesn’t know how to pump his own gas because self-service is banned in New Jersey.
Fetterman also recruited Jersey celebs like Snooki from “Jersey Shore” and rocker Steve Van Zandt to make mock pleas for Oz to abandon his campaign and come home.
Mastriano may not face similarly fierce attacks because he was serving in the military for most of the years he was registered to vote in New Jersey.
The election denier won a crowded GOP primary. But he faces an uphill fight in the general election against Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro.
Polls show Shapiro leading by about 10% over Mastriano, who has virtually no cash in his campaign war chest.
Fetterman is also leading Oz but by a somewhat smaller margin.
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