Dr. Oz Mocked For Running For PA Senate Seat While Living In NJ

PENNSYLVANIA — The fact that Mehmet Oz is running for a Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat while living in New Jersey already is becoming an issue in his campaign.

Oz's candidacy announcement on Tuesday was quickly mocked by U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, who represents New Jersey's 9th Congressional District. The district includes Cliffside Park, where the celebrity physician has resided for nearly two decades.

In a story last year, People reported that Oz and his wife live in a six-bedroom, eight-bathroom mansion with 12-foot high ceilings. The property overlooks Manhattan and is closer to New York City than Pennsylvania.

Senate candidates don't have to live in the state where they are seeking office during the campaign, but are required by the Constitution to move there by the election. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Oz registered to vote absentee this year at his in-laws' home in Montgomery County.

Asked about his residency on Sean Hannity's Fox News show on Tuesday, Oz did not directly answer the question. He said he lived in Philadelphia while earning his medical and business degrees at Penn and also met his wife there.

Oz is not a native Pennsylvanian. He was born in Cleveland and once told Philadelphia magazine he lived in Delaware from the time he was 3 until he graduated from high school. He then attended Harvard University in Massachusetts.

The residency issue has proven thorny for previous elected officials who called Pennsylvania home while living elsewhere. Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum found himself embroiled in controversy in 2004 after claiming to live in a modest home he had purchased from his in-laws in in the Pittsburgh suburb of Penn Hills.

The Santorum family actually was residing in more spacious accommodations — a $643,000 home in Leesburg, VA — a fact that came to light the Penn Hills School District had to pay more more than $100,000 for his children's charter school education in the Old Dominion State.

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