Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick joined a group of Republican lawmakers in calling for the ouster of Pittsburgh District Judge Xander Orenstein as he lamented progressive policies and their impact on crime.

McCormick held a news conference Tuesday in Moon with police union members, local Republicans and conservative commentator Ben Shapiro. He criticized local instances of violent crime and said violent crime rates in the city of Pittsburgh have increased when compared to pre-pandemic levels.

“When will this madness end? These soft-on-crime prosecutors, these soft-on-crime judges, radical policies like cashless bail, they are putting lives in danger. And they are putting our communities at risk,” McCormick said.

This year, Pittsburgh has reported 39 homicides, which is down from 59 in 2022.

This year’s homicide rate marks an increase from 2019, the year before the pandemic started, but it is significantly lower than most pre-pandemic years. The city saw 56 homicides in 2018, 57 in 2017, and 59 in 2016.

McCormick joined a group of local Republicans in calling for Orenstein to resign.

Allegheny County Councilman at-large Sam DeMarco, who also chairs the county’s GOP committee, said last week Orenstein should resign following the stabbing death of Benjamin Brallier, 44, a civilian employee of the Pennsylvania State Police who was jogging on the Montour Trail in Moon.

McCormick’s press conference was held on the Montour Trail and he said that Orenstein must be removed from office if he doesn’t “resign in disgrace.” He attributed Orenstein’s support of policies like nonmonetary bond as the reason Brallier was killed.

“This isn’t the first time Judge Orenstein used progressive policies, and if we fail to act we are going to see more preventable deaths,” McCormick said.

Court workers recommended the suspect in the killing be released on nonmonetary bail after he was arrested in a prior case, and Orenstein followed that recommendation.

Police arrested Anthony Quesen, a 25-year-old homeless man, and charged him with homicide. Local Republicans are questioning whether Quesen should have been out of jail at all and pinned the blame on Orenstein for releasing him on nonmonetary bail in June 2023 in a simple assault case.

That June case was over Quesen struggling with a man and ripping off his FitBit watch off his wrist before fleeing from authorities and jumping into the Allegheny River, a criminal complaint said.

Quesen underwent a psychiatric evaluation, according to court paperwork. When he was arraigned nine days after the June 2023 incident, the court’s pretrial services division recommended releasing him without cash bail as long as he continued mental health treatment and didn’t contact the victim and his family, court records showed.

Orenstein did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

McCormick’s press conference comes as he is locked in a tight race with incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. Polls have shown Casey up slightly in the contest, but McCormick closing the gap as Election Day approaches.

Dave McCormick on Trump’s claims of widespread vote cheating in PA. He doesn’t commit to saying widespread voter fraud is afoot, instead cites news reports of registration fraud in Lancaster & unconfirmed reports in York as “something going on, but doesn’t know the details yet” pic.twitter.com/4lVsGdD4eL

— Ryan Deto (@RyanDeto) October 29, 2024

In hopes to boost his profile, McCormick brought conservative commentator and author Ben Shapiro to the event.

Shapiro said he was motivated to help McCormick flip the Senate seat.

“Dave McCormick must be the senator from the state of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said. “These terrible events, these are local symptoms of national problems. These policies are created in Washington, D.C., by rubber stamps for the Biden-Harris agenda, like Bob Casey.”

McCormick attempted to tie crime and his criticism of Orenstein to Casey.

“Where is Bob Casey? Has he said one word about the murder of this officer? Has he condemned these progressive policies like cashless bail? No,” McCormick said.

Pennsylvania Democratic Party spokesperson TaNisha Cameron said McCormick is just attempting to distract from his own record. She said he hasn’t been truthful about living in Connecticut while running in Pennsylvania, hasn’t addressed his record of laying off hundreds of Pittsburgh workers while running the FreeMarkets company, and “celebrated” Roe v. Wade being overturned.

“David McCormick’s disastrous record of prioritizing himself and his own bottom line over Pennsylvanians is disqualifying,” Cameron said.

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