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Date: 10/29/2015
CHICOPEE – Looking out over the crowd assembled at the Castle of Knights, Hampden County Sheriff candidate Nick Cocchi said that this was exactly what he had hoped to see: an “army” of support.
Nearly 800 people attended the fundraising event that was a few days ahead of one year from the November 2016 election for the position occupied for decades by Michael Ashe Jr.
“We’re showing what Team Cocchi is all about,” he told Reminder Publications.
Chicopee School Committee member Michael Pease said that people starting to come to the event at 4:30 p.m., an hour before its official start.
Ashe was at Cocchi’s side greeting guests for the event.
Cocchi said attendance at events such as this one was the reason he started his campaign early.
Cocchi said that his goal is to continue the programs Ashe has used at the house of corrections as well as updating them.
The candidate said that while he understands the work of corrections after 22 years on the job, he is learning the political side of the job, as the sheriff must advocate for his or her budget.
Cocchi said he has met with Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo and will be discussing the pending opioid legislation with members of the House as well.
He told the audiences, “I’m blessed. I get to do this job, every day. I know our work. I see its impact. And I am even more resolutely committed to do this work, as I visit the people of Hampden County. As mothers and fathers tell me of their fear of an opioid crisis and heroin horror that threatens their children’s lives. When a grandfather asks me for help for his grandson, who has the lure of a gang and drug culture that is too accepted in our society, whispering in his ear. When a student in a class I have visited, confides in me of his challenges in school, on the street, and even at home – where his single mom struggles to keep him safe while his absent dad fights the fight to stay straight.”
He added, “I’ve also learned that politics is conjecture and spin. I’ve learned what I already knew, that I don’t have any appetite at all for that. We don’t have time for that. That is not what our campaign or this job is about.”
Cocchi is facing his colleague Assistant Deputy Superintendent Sheriff James Gill for the seat. Although bumper stickers have been spotted that read “Mike Albano should be sheriff,” the former Springfield mayor and current Governor’s Council member has not declared his candidacy.
Although Ashe has not formally endorsed Cocchi, Cocchi said that every Monday Ashe introduces him to various elected officials and others and tells them, “Nick’s my guy.”