Republican Bendish Drops Out Of Westchester DA Race

SCARSDALE, NY — With six weeks to go in the 2020 election, it's now just a one-person race for Westchester County district attorney. Republican Bruce Bendish said he is dropping out of the race against Democrat Mimi Rocah.

While his name will still appear on the Nov. 3 ballots, Bendish, 73, said he will no longer actively campaign for the job, the Journal News said.

Bendish, an attorney, said there are "certain realities" which he said he has just learned that are "just not conducive to being elected."

Westchester County voters are registered more than 2-1 as Democrats, and the current district attorney, Anthony A. Scarpino Jr., handily defeated Bendish for DA in 2016.

Mimi Rocah issued a statement following Bendish's announcement to cease campaigning and said she looks forward to serving all of the county starting in January.

"Since I launched my campaign last year, we have focused on keeping Westchester safe and criminal justice and ethics reform," her statement said. "Not having an opponent does not change the fact that we have a lot of work to do to ensure conviction integrity, accountability, prevent gun violence, secure justice for domestic violence victims and sexual assault survivors and implement my revolutionary transparency plan at the Westchester County DA's office."

Rocah, a Scarsdale resident, said she was also committed to supporting county-wide efforts to make certain no voter is disenfranchised and that every vote is counted.

Prior to her 16-1/2 years as a federal prosecutor, Rocah clerked for the Honorable John Gleeson, United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and the Honorable Chester J. Straub, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She also worked as a litigation associate at the law firm Cravath, Swaine and Moore.

Since 2017, Rocah has been Pace University School of Law's Distinguished Fellow in Criminal Justice and a legal analyst for MSNBC and NBC News. She also served as the PTA School Safety chair at her children's public elementary school and has organized and led numerous forums in Westchester on public corruption, sexual and domestic violence and online child predators. She has been an active volunteer in Moms Demand Action, working to end gun violence, and My Sister's Place, an organization that helps victims of domestic violence and human trafficking.

She is married with two children.

SEE ALSO: League Of Women Voters Cancels District Attorney Candidate Forum

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