Copyright The Philadelphia Inquirer
Bucks County Republicans are stoking fears about crime in Philadelphia even as violent crime in the city steadily drops from its high during the pandemic. Digital ads Republicans have circulated for the county’s sheriff and district attorney races since August tell voters to “keep Philly crime out of Bucks County,” borrowing a tactic from President Donald Trump, who regularly promotes exaggerated visions of crime-ridden liberal cities. Republicans in the purple collar county hope the message will boost the GOP incumbents, District Attorney Jen Schorn and Sheriff Fred Harran, as they face off this fall against their respective Democratic challengers, Joe Khan and Danny Ceisler. “We’re letting anarchy take over our country in certain places, and that’s not something we want in Bucks,” said Pat Poprik, the chair of the Bucks County Republican Party. Meanwhile, Democrats are eager to tie the GOP incumbents to Trump, portraying them as allies of a president whose nationwide approval rate is dropping. Khan, a former county solicitor and former federal prosecutor who unsuccessfully ran for attorney general last year, is seeking to portray himself as less politically motivated than Schorn, a veteran prosecutor who is running for a full term as district attorney after being appointed to the position last year. Ceisler, an Army veteran and an attorney who worked for Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration, has taken a similar approach in his race against Harran, the outspoken Republican sheriff who has sought a controversial partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Democrats are far more enthusiastic about voting precisely because they see what’s happening on the national level. They are really infuriated by what Donald Trump is doing,” State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, who chairs the Bucks County Democratic Party, said. “They’re going to make their displeasure heard by coming to the polls.” The local races in the key county, which Trump narrowly won last year, will be a temperature check on how swing voters are responding to Trump’s second term and will gauge their enthusiasm ahead of the 2026 midterms, when Shapiro stands for reelection. As the Nov. 4 election approaches, early signs indicate Democrats’ message might be working — polling conducted by a Democratic firm in September found their candidates ahead, and three weeks before Election Day, Democrats had requested more than twice as many mail ballots as Republicans. “I think the Republican Party has the same problem it always does. … They turn out when Trump’s on the ticket, but when he’s not, there’s less enthusiasm,” said Jim Worthington, who has run pro-Trump organizations in Bucks County. “Truth be told, the Democrats do a hell of a job just turning out their voters.” Republican messaging in the two races focuses on the idea that Bucks County is safe, but its neighbors are not. GOP ads, which have run over the course of four months, suggest that Khan and Ceisler would enact “dangerous” policies in Bucks County such as “releasing criminals without bail” and “giving sanctuary to violent gang members.” Democrats reject these ads as scare tactics. The ads make implicit comparisons to Philly’s progressive District Attorney Larry Krasner, who is poised to win a third term in the city but remains a controversial figure in the wider region even as violent crime rates have fallen in the city. They frame Harran and Schorn in stark contrast to their opponents as lifelong Bucks County law enforcement officers with histories of holding criminals accountable. “I think it resonates beyond the Republican base,” said Guy Ciarrocchi, a Republican analyst, who contended frequent news coverage of Krasner makes the message more viable. Khan, a former assistant Philly district attorney who unsuccessfully ran against Krasner in the 2017 primary, has noted that he campaigned “very, very vigorously” against Krasner and challenged his ideas on how to serve the city. “I accept the reality that I didn’t win that election,” said Khan, whose platform in 2017 included a proposal to stop prosecuting most low-level drug offenses. “Unlike my opponent, who seems to basically enjoy the sport of scoring political points by sparring with the DA of Philadelphia.” Schorn, however, is adamant that politics has never played a role in her prosecutorial decisions. Her mission, she said, is “simply to get justice.” A lifelong Bucks County resident who has been a prosecutor in the county since 1999, Schorn handled some of the county’s most high-profile cases and spearheaded the formation of a task force for internet crimes against children. “This has been my life’s mission, prosecuting cases here in Bucks County, the county where I was raised,” she said. “I didn’t do it for any notoriety. I didn’t do it for self-promotion. I did it because it’s what I went to law school to do.” Harran spent decades as Bensalem’s public safety director before first running for sheriff in 2021. He is seeking reelection amid controversy caused by his decision to partner his agency with ICE, a move that a Bucks County judge upheld last week after a legal challenge. “Being Bucks County Sheriff isn’t a position you can learn on the job. For 39 years, I’ve woken up every day focused on keeping our communities safe,” Harran said in an email to The Inquirer in which he criticized Ceisler as lacking experience. Although Ceisler has never worked directly in law enforcement, he argues the sheriff’s job is one of leadership in public safety. That’s something he says he’s well versed in as a senior public safety official in Shapiro’s administration who previously served on the Pentagon’s COVID-19 crisis management team. Harran, who described his opponent as a “political strategist,” criticized “politicians” for bringing “half-baked ideas like ‘no-cash bail’” into law enforcement. The concept, which is repeatedly derided in the GOP ads, sets up a system by which defendants are either released free of charge or held without the opportunity for bail based on their risk to the community and likelihood of returning to court. Khan and Ceisler each voiced support for the concept in prior runs for Philadelphia district attorney and Bucks County district attorney, respectively. Both say they still support cashless bail. Neither, however, would have the authority to implement the policy if elected, though Khan as district attorney could establish policies preventing county prosecutors from seeking cash bail in certain cases. “When a defendant is arrested and they come into court, every prosecutor answers this question: Should this person be detained or not?” Khan said. “If the answer is yes, then your position in court is that this person shouldn’t be let out, and it doesn’t matter how much money they have. And if the answer is no, then you need to figure out what conditions you need to make sure they come to court.” Even as Democrats view voter anger at Trump as a key piece of their path to victory, they are working to present themselves as apolitical. Democratic ads attack Schorn for not investigating a pipeline leak in Upper Makefield and Harran as caring about nothing but himself. Positive ads highlight Ceisler’s military background and Khan’s career as a federal prosecutor. Khan and Ceisler, the Democratic Party’s ads argue, will “stop child predators, stand up to corruption, and they’ll keep politics out of public safety.” Khan has described Schorn as a political actor running her office “under Trump’s blueprint.” He has focused on her decisions not to prosecute an alleged child abuse case in the Central Bucks School District or investigate the company responsible for a jet fuel leak into Upper Makefield’s drinking water. The jet fuel case was turned over to the environmental crimes unit in Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday’s office. And prosecutorial rules bar Schorn from discussing the alleged abuse. “During the last, I don’t know, 13 years when [Khan] has been pursuing politics, I’ve been a public servant,” Schorn said. “For someone accusing me of putting politics first, he seems to be using politics to further his own agenda.” But Schorn appears in GOP ads alongside Harran, a figure who has frequently invited political controversy in fights with the Democratic-led Bucks County Board of Commissioners, his effort to partner with federal immigration authorities, and his early endorsement of Trump last year. At a September rally in Newtown for Treasurer Stacy Garrity, a Republican running for governor, Harran cracked jokes about former President Joe Biden’s age as he climbed onto the stage and falsely told voters that they will “lose [their] right to vote” if they don’t vote out three Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices standing for retention. Harran has long contended that his decision to partner with ICE was not political. “I’m a cop who ran to keep being a cop. This isn’t about politics for me — it’s about doing everything I can to keep my community safe,” Harran said. Harran’s opponent, Ceisler, paints a different picture as he draws a direct line between the sheriff and the president. Trump, Ceisler said, has inserted politics into public safety in his second term, and he contended that Harran has done the same. “[Harran] used his bully pulpit to help get the president elected, so to that extent he is linked to the president for better or worse,” Ceisler said in an interview. Ceisler has pledged to take politics out of the office and end the department’s partnership with ICE if elected. At an event in Warminster last month, voters were quick to ask Ceisler which party he was running with. Ceisler asked them to hear his pitch about how he would run the office first. “Don’t hold it against me,” he quipped as he ultimately admitted to one voter he’s a Democrat.
