PHILADELPHIA — Mehmet Oz took one look at Jeff Bartos, and worried.
It was early May, and Bartos was just weeks removed from thyroid surgery, his campaign for U.S. Senate was struggling, and he was exhausted while driving across Pennsylvania for county party dinners.
He and Oz, then rivals for the state’s Republican Senate nomination, were in Crawford County, in Pennsylvania’s northwest corner, and Bartos was determined to drive halfway home that night. He wanted to be back in Montgomery County for Mother’s Day the next morning. Oz stopped him.