Big personalities. Scant policies.

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Welcome to the final days of the best month of the year (says Jon, who in September celebrates his birthday, Rosh Hashanah, and the start of football season). Jon is fresh from a swing through Philly and Bethlehem to take in a couple Fetterman rallies, while Julia has been watching voter registration shifts in the state and whether the Phillies will blow their playoff chances.

There are 41 days 🗓 until Election Day.

— Jonathan Tamari, Julia Terruso, (@JonathanTamari, @JuliaTerruso, election@inquirer.com)

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Pennsylvania, as one operative put it recently, has a long history of electing “boring white guys.”

That’s one trend that’ll change in this year’s Senate race.

Well, at least the “boring” part.

In a contest that features a TV celebrity and a steel country Paul Bunyan, big personalities 🔑 have largely overshadowed serious policy debate.

That’s in keeping with a widespread celebri-fication of politics. But it’s also a pretty significant shift for Pennsylvania.

The state’s top statewide officials, Gov. Tom Wolf and Sens. Bob Casey and Pat Toomey have the combined excitement of oatmeal (and maybe that’s by design, given the state’s close elections).

Democratic nominee John Fetterman is a radical departure. His tattoos, hoodies and blaring rock music at his rallies back up his central appeal: that he’s different from most politicians. More real, less starched 🔑.

Republican Mehmet Oz has built his campaign around the image 🔑 he cultivated for years as a daytime TV star. He’d be Pennsylvania’s the state’s first senator with several multimillion-dollar mansions 🔑, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a line to Oprah.

There are big issues at stake — abortion rights, the economy, crime, immigration, climate change, and energy demands — but so far we’ve heard a lot more about crudite 🔑.

When the candidates have talked about issues, it’s mostly to scare the bejesus out of voters.

Fetterman warns that Oz would restrict abortion (Oz has said he opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest, and to save the mother), and Oz says Fetterman would let criminals and drugs 🔑 run loose.

Their own policy platforms and goals? Best we can tell about Oz is that his mission is to oppose whatever Joe Biden wants. Fetterman says he’d support a minimum wage increase, abortion rights, labor unions, and legal weed.

But much of his messaging hinges on trolling Oz 🔑 as a rich fraud from New Jersey 🔑. His stump speech is largely a comedy routine so familiar that supporters in Bethlehem Saturday called out some hits before Fetterman even delivered them.

“I had to Google – what is a crudite?” Fetterman said to laughs.

Oz depicts Fetterman as a rich kid 🔑 dressing up in a blue collar costume to conceal radical beliefs.

“When he dresses like that, it’s not an accident, he’s kicking authority in the balls,” Oz said on the Ruthless podcast last week.

Fetterman tweeted: “DC could use a kick in the balls.”

Stay classy, guys.

The scarce discussion of issues has been exacerbated by the fact that Fetterman wouldn’t agree to a debate until Oct. 25, two weeks before Election Day, despite invitations for earlier dates. He has done few interviews, especially with Pennsylvania outlets. Oz has been available to reporters but repeatedly evades direct answers on policy, including on the minimum wage, a Senate bill that would ban abortion at 15 weeks, and gun laws.

But voters often go with their guts. Who do they trust? Who do they relate to? Who matches their values?

There’s some logic to that approach. Senators in reality are almost always left deciding on muddled, compromised bills full of trade-offs. That’s where character and background come in. Which principles do they prioritize when competing goals clash?

Toomey has broken with the GOP on gun laws, but the former banker won’t budge on fiscal issues. New Jersey’s Cory Booker, the son of civil rights activists, has prioritized criminal justice and policing reform.

Both Pennsylvania candidates seem to have incentive to turn the race into a personality contest. Oz, polling shows, has a deeply negative public image. So if it comes down to who voters like more, that would seem good for Fetterman.

Oz, meanwhile, has had lukewarm GOP support. The best motivation for energizing conservative voters might be the thought of Sen. Fetterman (D., Sheetz) walking the marbled U.S. Capitol in gym shorts.

Maybe he’ll bring a pair for Casey.

💬 “To me, it just doesn’t seem like everything’s clocking with Mastriano, and some of his stances on unions, and right-to-work, and collective bargaining.”

— John McNesby, head of the Philly FOP on the union’s decision to back Democrat Josh Shapiro for governor, over Republican Doug Mastriano.

🔔 Philly fight continues. Oz was back in the city Monday, touting his endorsement from the Philly FOP (which is backing Shapiro in the gov’s race). The event was Oz’s third press event in Philly this month – a fairly busy schedule there for a Republican – and came just two days after Fetterman had his first major public event in the city. Philly is going to be blue. But Oz seems to think he can cut into the Democratic edge with a persistent focus on crime.

✔️ Score one for the Fetterman advance team. It’s a small thing, but at every rally Fetterman does, there’s a blown up poster behind him with his campaign logo over a local landmark. In Erie it played homage to the city’s adopted slogan “don’t give up the ship.” In Philly it was the LOVE sculpture. In Bethlehem the SteelStacks. It’s a savvy touch when one of his main arguments is that he’s a real Pennsylvanian, and his opponent isn’t.

🐶 Zoey is a good girl. Yes she is. You may or may not like Rep. Susan Wild, the Democrat locked in a tough reelection race in the Lehigh Valley, but we should all respect her dog, Zoey, who was completely unfussed by a raucous crowd of over 1,000 Saturday, and blaring speakers echoing off the gym walls. There are humans who are less chill in that situation.

🙋‍♀️ Maybe we just need to apply ourselves. The progressive group End Citizens United is releasing a report rating the strength of its democracy in every state. Pennsylvania got a C, and ranked 24th overall. The ratings are based on voting and campaign finance laws and protections against attempts to overturn elections. New Jersey got an A. Nerds.

📰 Rebbie Mastriano emerges as a forceful figure in husband’s campaign. Ivy DeJesus, with PennLive has a story about Rebbie Mastriano and the prominent role she’s played in her husband’s campaign. Family drama: DeJesus talked with Mastriano’s estranged sister, who lives in California, and who gave money to Shapiro’s campaign.

📰 Mastriano mocks Shapiro as ‘little Josh.” Shapiro’s revenge: a massive bank account. Our colleague Chris Brennan looks at the latest fundraising numbers in the governor’s race. Mastriano on Tuesday reported donations of just under $3.2 million from early June to mid-September. Shapiro took in more than $8 for every $1 raised by Mastriano, raising $25.4 million since June.

📰 There will be no constitutional amendments on the Nov. 8 ballot, but big ones are looming. Angela Couloumbis at Spotlight PA writes that while voters won’t see any proposed amendments to the state constitution in November, the 2023 primary could feature at least six with big implications for abortion rights, a governor’s powers during an emergency and more.

📰 Jim Florio, former N.J. governor and author of landmark Superfund legislation, has died at 85. One of Jon’s first memories of politics was when he knew there was this guy Florio, and everyone in New Jersey seemed mad at him over taxes. On Monday he helped write the former governor’s obit, which of course mentioned the tax revolt, but also his work on an assault weapons ban and environmental preservation and clean ups.

See you in October! 🎃