The Republican taking on former Judge Susan Cacace in the race for Westchester District Attorney said he is undaunted by the Democrats' huge advantage among registered voters in the county.
John Sarcone is even trying to portray Cacace as a far-left Democrat ‒ after she got finished turning back primary challengers who called her a Republican every chance they got.
Sarcone, of Croton-on-Hudson, is a lawyer in private practice who has run unsuccessfully for state judge and is a former appointee to the U.S. General Services Administration by former President Donald Trump.
He is running on a law and order platform, promising to limit plea bargaining to non-violent crimes, restore respect for law enforcement and rout out public corruption.
He assailed Democrats as soft on crime and boldly predicted months ago that he won't even need Democrat William Wagstaff , the primary runner-up, to stay in the race on the Working Families line to overcome Cacace and the 3-to-1 voter advantage Democrats enjoy. Wagstaff has not announced whether he is staying in the race
"It could be 5 to 1, even many Democrats I speak with are fed up with the lawlessness, the hostility towards law enforcement and the politicization of the DA’s offices throughout New York State and the country," Sarcone said Thursday.
He lambasted New York's bail reforms that prohibited bail for misdemeanors and non-violent felonies, saying he would scrap the reforms entirely, and that Cacace would never go beyond her calls for tweaks to give judge's more discretion because "she doesn't want to offend the woke leaders in her party."
"Instead of supporting the men and women of the office she seeks to lead, she's turning her back on them," he said. "Prosecutors are in the best position to determine bail for offenders."
He said she was adhering to anti-Semitic rhetoric but when asked how, said it was because she had not publicly disclaimed statements by Congressman Jamaal Bowman and other Democrats over the war in Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.
Cacace's campaign released a statement from her following Sarcone's comments and emphasized that she has repeatedly spoken out against hate crimes and anti-Semitism over the past several months.
“Tuesday’s primary results are a clear sign that the people of Westchester value experience, integrity and values," Cacace said. "I look forward to continuing to engage voters from both sides of the aisle over the next several months leading up to November and to listen to their concerns, all to better prepare me as the next District Attorney of Westchester. Perhaps my Republican opponent can take this time to better educate himself on where I stand on important issues that I have repeatedly clarified throughout this campaign.”
Cacace stepped down as county judge in the fall to enter the race after DA Mimi Rocah announced she wasn't seeking a second term . She then spent the primary fending off attacks from left-leaning challengers Wagstaff and Adeel Mirza that she was too right wing to continue efforts at criminal justice reform within the DA's Office.
She has commended Rocah's handling of the office and said she would in particular continue the new Conviction Review Unit Rocah started.
Sarcone has never worked as a prosecutor, although he spent a year as a paralegal in the Bronx District Attorney's Office in the late 1990s as he was completing law school before becoming a law clerk to a criminal court judge. In addition to his 24 years in private practice, he said the primary experience that makes him suited to run the DA's office is his work as regional administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration. He was appointed to the post by President Donald Trump and oversaw the agency's operation in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands from 2018 to 2021.
Sarcone began a bid for the Republican nomination for state Attorney General in 2022. But he pulled out of the race at the party nominating convention that February, days after an article in the New York Post about his successful appeal a decade earlier reducing the murder conviction of Croton resident Robert Sepe to manslaughter in the 2008 baseball-bat beating death of his girlfriend. Sarcone convinced an appellate court that the jury wrongly rejected Sepe's claim of extreme emotional disturbance. Sepe's 25-years-to life murder sentence was then reduced to 20 years for first-degree manslaughter and he becomes eligible for parole next year, a decade earlier than he would have.
Sarcone said Friday his pulling out was because he didn't want to run in a primary. He defended his work for Sepe, calling it an "interest of justice" appeal and saying prosecutors had made the wrong decision in pursuing a murder conviction with the information they had about Sepe's mental health issues. He added that he was helped in the appeal by a former chief of the office's homicide bureau.
He ran unsuccessfully for state Supreme Court in the 9th Judicial District later in 2022 and in 2023. In last year's race he was the top Republican contender for four judgeships but still finished nearly 30,000 votes behind the last winning Democrat in the 5-county race.
Sarcone suggested Cacace was taking a November victory for granted. But she was clear with her supporters after Tuesday night's primary that their work wasn't over, that a general election still needed to be won.
Cacace got her start as a prosecutor in the DA's Office for 14 years then had a brief stint in private practice before being elected to the county bench in 2005 in her second try. She spent more than a dozen years running the sex offense court and is popular among law enforcement in the county, particularly in Yonkers where she comes from and has deep political ties. She is the daughter of the late Robert Cacace, who was the city's chief judge and for whom the police-court building on South Broadway is named.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Republican John Sarcone expresses confidence in battle for Westchester District Attorney
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