New York Times: “He is being heavily outspent by his Democratic rival, has had no television ads on the air since May, has chosen not to interact with the state’s news media in ways that would push his agenda, and trails by double digits in reputable public polling and most private surveys.”

“There’s no sign of cavalry coming to his aid, either: The Republican Governors Association, which is helping the party’s nominees in Arizona, Michigan and six other states, has no current plans to assist Mr. Mastriano, according to people with knowledge of its deliberations.”

“New Jersey is serving as an incubator for Republican candidates in Pennsylvania, with two statewide candidates being New Jersey natives and longtime residents,” the New Jersey Globe reports.

“Gubernatorial candidate Douglas Mastriano (R) was a registered voter in New Jersey for 28 years until July 2021 when election officials changed his status to inactive.”

“Dr. Mehmet Oz lived and voted in New Jersey until 2021, when he moved to Pennsylvania to seek a U.S. Senate seat. He remains on New Jersey’s voter rolls as a resident of Cliffside Park and could legally vote in his home state this November if he chose to not vote in Pennsylvania.”

“Doug Mastriano has spent much of the summer ignoring mainstream press, setting a new unorthodox precedent for a major gubernatorial campaign,” McClatchy reports.

“Now the Republican nominee in Pennsylvania is entering the homestretch of the race without another staple resource: Television ads. Mastriano has not aired a single commercial since May 16, the day before the primary.”

“And according to advertising tracking firms, to date, he’s reserved no air time for the final 60 days of the general election, when TV wars between candidates traditionally reach their peak.”

“A week before Jan. 6, on a Zoom call organized by far-right Christian Nationalists seeking to reinstall Donald Trump in the White House, a man with a booming baritone voice bowed his bald head and began to pray,” Rolling Stone reports.

Said the man: “We remember the promises of old… We know we overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony and not loving our lives unto death.”

He added: “God I ask you that you help us roll in these dark times, that we fear not the darkness, that we will seize our Esther and Gideon moments. We’re surrounded by wickedness and fear, and dithering, and inaction. But that’s not our problem. Our problem is following Your lead…. I pray that… we’ll seize the power that we had given to us by the Constitution, and as well by You, providentially. I pray for the leaders also in the federal government, God, on the Sixth of January that they will rise up with boldness.”

“The man was state senator Doug Mastriano, now the Republican nominee to be the next governor of Pennsylvania.”

The video is really something else.

Philadelphia Inquirer: “As he tours the Commonwealth, Mastriano has essentially walled himself off from the general public, traveling within a bubble of security guards and jittery aides who aim to not only keep him safe, but ensure he only comes into contact with true believers.”

“Some GOP candidates are softening their rhetoric and scrubbing their campaign websites of hardline positions as the midterms get closer. But Doug Mastriano is running a much different playbook in the Pennsylvania governor’s race, one of the most important contests in the nation,” Axios reports.

“He has doubled down on false claims about the 2020 election. He’s ghosting the mainstream media and spending nothing on TV advertising, relying instead on Facebook livestreams and far-right media.”

“He has a small staff largely unknown to Pennsylvania politicos. And he may tap a woman who has described QAnon as ‘a very valuable resource’ to be the state’s top election official.”

“Doug Mastriano, the far-right Republican nominee for governor of Pennsylvania, wore a Confederate uniform for a faculty photo at the Army War College that surfaced on Friday,” the New York Times reports.

Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano (R) “has surrounded himself with a non-professional, armed security team whose members include at least one person with direct ties to a militia group,” Lancaster Online reports.

“Mastriano’s detail includes several members of a relatively new evangelical church near Elizabethtown, LifeGate, whose leaders have spoken openly about electing Christians to office to advance biblical principles in government.”

New York Times: “Pennsylvania Republican officials who had warned that Mr. Mastriano was unelectable have largely closed ranks behind him, after he proved to be the overwhelming choice of base Republicans.”

“Doug Mastriano, the Trump-endorsed GOP nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, is expected to appear virtually on Tuesday before the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection but might not end up answering any questions due to a dispute over his testimony,” CNN reports.

“The committee has been negotiating the terms of Mastriano’s deposition for weeks but the two sides still have not reached an agreement over whether his attorney would be allowed to videotape the deposition or be given access to the committee’s own full recording after the fact.”

“GOP leaders rushed to stop him in the primary. When he won anyway, some polls unexpectedly showed him within reach of his Democratic rival, and the Republican establishment began to warm to him,” Politico reports.

“But then he was engulfed by controversy — exactly the kind that GOP insiders had previously worried could sink his chances.”

“The candidate is Pennsylvania governor hopeful Doug Mastriano — but this year, he’s following a path Republicans recognize from their see-saw first months getting used to Donald Trump as the party’s leader back in 2016.”

HuffPost: “Doug Mastriano has a secret. The Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor says he’s chosen someone to serve as the commonwealth’s next secretary of state — a position that will hold enormous power over the 2024 presidential election. But he won’t tell voters who it is.”

Associated Press: “When he crushed a nine-person field to win the GOP nomination for Pennsylvania governor in May, some in the party warned that Mastriano’s far-right views on everything from abortion to the 2020 presidential election would squander an otherwise attainable seat in a critical battleground state.”

“But now, as the general election season intensifies, the GOP machinery is cranking up to back Mastriano’s campaign and attack his Democratic rival, Josh Shapiro.”

Politico: “In the immediate aftermath of Pennsylvania’s messy gubernatorial primary — which included an ill-fated, last-minute attempt by the GOP establishment to stop Mastriano — many Democrats and Republicans in Pennsylvania thought the race was all but over. Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the Democratic nominee, is a first-class fundraiser with a record of winning tough statewide races. He emerged unscathed from the Democratic primary after clearing the field.”

“Mastriano, on the other hand, has a shoestring campaign, regularly antagonizes members of his own party, and is known for his far-right views on hot-button issues. He chartered buses to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, where he appears to have been part of a crowd that crossed barricades. He believes in no exceptions for an abortion ban. He has said that the state legislature has the power to appoint presidential electors, and as governor, he would have the power to ‘decertify’ election machines. When Mastriano pulled out a win in the primary, many national Republicans kept their distance and, privately, assumed Shapiro would waltz to the governor’s mansion.”

“But as the political environment has worsened for Democrats across the country, the gubernatorial race in Pennsylvania has begun to look more competitive than either party expected.”

Philadelphia Inquirer: “The removed videos include freewheeling discussions in which Mastriano predicts that this November’s election will be marred by Democratic voter fraud; accuses Republicans who don’t support him of looking down on veterans; and calls the fight against abortion ‘the most important issue of our lifetime.'”

“This has become somewhat of a pattern for Mastriano, 58, a retired Army colonel who bills himself as a plainspoken populist. He communicates directly with voters online, yet sometimes covers his tracks.”

“Before this latest batch of deletions, Mastriano removed potentially problematic or controversial posts, including tweets promoting the Qanon conspiracy theory, as well as videos in which he called local faith leaders ‘cowards’; acknowledged his Covid diagnosis while visiting the White House; and feuded with GOP lawmakers in Harrisburg.”