ANOTHER REPUBLICAN FOR ELECTORAL FRAUD?

Sean Parnell, Donald Trump's chosen candidate for the Pennsylvania Senate seat being vacated by Pat Toomey, has been accused of strangling his now-estranged wife and physically battering his children -- which might not be a problem in, say, Missouri or Georgia, where the top GOP candidates face similar allegations, but would probably be a bit too much for Pennsylvania's upscale suburban voters. So the state GOP is looking to recruit other candidates, and might turn to a famous name from TV.

The Washington Free Beacon reports:

The celebrity physician Dr. Mehmet Oz is preparing to jump into the Pennsylvania Senate race on the Republican side....

The 61-year-old Oz has begun hiring a staff and reaching out to potential allies, according to influential Republicans familiar with his plans.

Did you know that Dr. Oz lived in Pennsylvania? Actually, it's not clear that he does....

He owns a mansion—and is registered to vote—in neighboring New Jersey and bought a vacation home in Palm Beach, Fla., in 2015, according to public records. He does not own property in Pennsylvania, at least under his own name.

A spokesman for Oz told the Washington Free Beacon, "Since last year, Dr. Oz has lived and voted in Pennsylvania where he attended school and has deep family ties. Dr. Oz has received encouragement to run for the U.S. Senate, but is currently focused on our show and has no announcement at this time." Oz has a non-permanent voter registration in Pennsylvania connected to a Montgomery County address that appears to belong to his mother-in-law.

Wait -- he's registered to vote in two states simultaneously? Don't Republicans usually consider that prima facie evidence of fraud? Is it not fraud-y if you're a Republican, especially if one of the registrations is "non-permanent"?

(I wonder if the doctor voted in the New Jersey governor's race. I hope we find out.)

But will Trump-loving Republican voters abandon Parnell for Oz? Maybe. Oz has a connection to Trump -- in September 2016, when Trump wanted to release his medical records (such as they were), he did so on Dr. Oz's TV show. A year later, Ivanka Trump was a guest on the show. (Under those circumstances, I could imagine Trump switching his endorsement if Pennsylvania Republicans ask nicely, or at least if Parnell drops out.)

But is Dr. Oz a good match for Republicans ideologically? Well, the Beacon does remind us of this:

A dual U.S. and Turkish citizen, Oz served in the Turkish Army in the 1980s and has since developed a relationship with the country's president, the strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

So he'll be a perfect match.