Lori Falce: Veggie trays or crudite? The battle for Pa. votes

Who could have predicted that carrots and broccoli would have such an impact on politics?

Every day at parties, barbecues and receptions of all kinds, platters of produce are being ignored in favor of chips, cookies, pizza and tiny little sandwiches with the crusts cut off.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania is taking the rest of the country on an absolute roller coaster ride that started with a video about raw vegetables.

You know what I’m talking about. It’s the video made by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz about inflation and the climbing price of groceries. Although it was filmed in April when the retired cardiothoracic surgeon and former talk show host was campaigning around the clock as part of a jam-packed field vying for the GOP nomination, it came back into the public eye over the past week.

Why? Somehow what was only a hiccup four months ago has been boiled down to the essence of the Oz campaign and the response from his Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman.

In it, Oz attempts to talk to the average Pennsylvania voter. Aren’t groceries expensive? Look at these prices as I walk around this typical store that could be in Anytown, Pa. Listen to me talk about my normal life, with my wife sending me to the store. I’m just like you!

The gaffes are what grab the laughs. He flubs the names of two stores into the nonexistent Wegner’s. His shopping list apparently includes a tiny crown of broccoli and a massive bag of whole carrots. Then there’s the final blow — he calls this plant-based extravaganza a crudité.

And the Fetterman campaign has been happy to capitalize on Oz tripping over his own gold-plated feet.

Fetterman, whose political roots are built on his everyman identity as the former mayor of steel town Braddock, has gleefully made Oz’s outsider status as a New Jersey resident relocating to Pennsylvania for the Senate race a cornerstone of his strategy. He has countered with posts and a video about real Pennsylvanians eating veggie trays and raked in a lot of donations doing it.

What we really need is for Oz to stop pretending to be a normal Pennsylvanian when he isn’t one. Be honest about who you are and why you want the job, doc. That’s what people want to hear — not pandering about things you don’t understand.

At the same time, while Fetterman’s Twitter feed is hilarious, the Keystone State is electing a senator, not a late-night television personality who needs to compete with Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon. How about a little less wit and a little more wisdom?

The Pennsylvania seat in the U.S. Senate has huge potential to impact the lives of people across the state and nation. It could swing the chamber from a relative tie broken only by the Democratic vice president to being an actual majority for the left or hand it back to the GOP and Mitch McConnell. It is a major moment in state and national politics.

And to make that decision, people need to know exactly who they are voting into that job. That isn’t happening when one candidate is pretending to be something he’s not, and the other is pointing and laughing.

Instead, we should get down to the meat of the issues — but let’s avoid calling it a charcuterie board.