NORTHAMPTON — Patrick Cahillane appeared poised to win a second six-year term as sheriff for Hampshire County as election results began coming into the Northampton Country Club Tuesday evening, where friends and supporters were part of his election night party.
But Cahillane, who succeeded 32-year sheriff Robert J. Garvey in 2016, was not ready to declare victory over write-candidate Yvonne Gittelson of Goshen shortly before 9 p.m., even though he had earned margins of at least 300 votes over Gittelson in several Northampton wards.
“It’s trending in the right direction,” Cahillane said, shortly after he was informed that he had gotten 10-1 or better margins in both Easthampton and Hatfield.
Win or lose, Cahillane said he would be in his office Wednesday morning, where he would be participating in a state LGBTQ Commission meeting via Zoom.
Cahillane earned the Democratic nomination in September after earning just over 48% of the votes cast, with the remainder going to Gittelson and Caitlin Sepeda of South Hadley.
Gittelson, the corrections program specialist for the state education department and Cahillane’s top education official from 2017-21, decided to run the write-in campaign after Cahillane failed to clear the 50% threshold.
The sheriff’s department, with its seven divisions including civil process service, oversees the Northampton jail and associated programs with a $15 million or so budget.
Cahillane earned endorsements from those in the Democratic establishment, including the next Massachusetts governor, Attorney General Maura Healey, and was also supported by several police chiefs.
As results came in, daughter Erin Cahillane read off the tallies to cheers from those who filled most of the tables at the country club, stating the vote totals for the person she was calling “dad” or “the sheriff,” as well as the “write-in.”
Gerry Devine, a former selectman and moderator in Hadley, brought the results from his town directly to the site, announcing that of the approximately 2,600 who voted, 1,922 went for Cahillane and 219 for Gittelson.
Those on hand were enjoying drinks from the bar and a platter of fruit and cheese, chocolate chip cookies and salsa and chips while watching national elections results from MSNBC.
Prior to the election, Cahillane said there have been several innovations during his first term, including launching the Nurturing Fathers Program, which earned an Emerging Leader Award from The Children’s Trust, a Boston nonprofit; opening the Rocky Hill Re-Entry Collaborative with the state parole board and ServiceNet to provide interim housing for parolees so they can make a smoother transition back to their families and communities; and creating the Community, Accountability, Recovery and Experience, or CARE Unit, a treatment model with a goal of instilling in participants a greater sense of being invested in their own recovery, and the recovery of their peers.
But Gittelson contended that Cahillane had made mistakes as sheriff, and said, if elected, she would walk the facility every day and would get to know every staff member and inmate by name. Among concepts she would promote are English as a second language classes, a virtual commercial drivers license program and expanded vocational training so that upon release inmates can find work. She would also have a virtual college program with the University of Massachusetts Prison Institute.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
