DR. OZ FOR SENATE is headquartered in a patch of strip mall next to a Mexican restaurant in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, where the candidate’s father-in-law, Dr. Gerald Lemole, maintains a medical office down the road from the Lemole family farm, three acres overlooking the Philmont Country Club that the candidate, who seems to live in New Jersey, has claimed as his official place of residence. Five days into the race, there was no discernible election-related activity of any kind. No staff. No yard signs. No signs of life at all.
Except for John Palma.
“Are you looking for Mehmet?” he asked.
I said that I was.
The owner of John Sebastian Painting and Renovating (slogan: your world in color, when quality and neatness count), Palma is a tattooed 47-year-old Italian American father of three from the area. He is friendly but uninterested in bullshit, the kind of guy more inclined to talk to a stranger with ease about matters of philosophy than of meteorology. As I approached the building, he was crouched on the pavement, applying coats of white paint to the concrete markers of the parking spaces that spanned the lot. He’d meant to complete the project during the workweek, but it was just as well that he could do it now when nobody was likely to bother him. Or that had been the idea, anyway, before he noticed the car with D.C. plates roll up. He assumed I worked for the candidate.
“Do you have an appointment?” he asked. I said that I didn’t. “Is he expecting you?” I said that he wasn’t. I explained who I was and that I was trying to speak to someone—anyone—from the campaign, which had so far proved elusive.
This story is from the January 3-16, 2022 edition of New York magazine.
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This story is from the January 3-16, 2022 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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