Ezell & Cochran to Run in Jackson Co. Sheriff Primary

Friday was the deadline to qualify for any election on the 2015 ballot in Mississippi. While there are several big races coming up this year, the Jackson County Sheriff’s race has been one of the most controversial and hotly contested of them all. Some say there’s only room for one Sheriff in Jackson County, but in the past three years alone, Jackson County has seen three different Sheriffs.

After Mike Byrd resigned over felony charges in January on 2014, Charlie Britt stepped in as Interim Sheriff. Then Mike Ezell won a special election last November to fill the remaining year left in Byrd’s term. Now Ezell will face Bob Cochran for this year’s general Sheriff’s election. Cochran says, “I’m still going to campaign on I care. I’m going to campaign on the integrity, the character, the accountability, the responsibility, and the ethics.”

Ezell feels the successes he’s had in the Sheriff’s Department thus far speak for themselves. Ezell says, “Right off the bat, within two weeks, we had a homicide. We solved that case. We worked well with the victims in the case. It was very unfortunate we made some arrests. We’ve made some arrests in the meantime on other cases.”

Sheriff Ezell made arrests in a string of burglaries in Vancleave and has started community programs throughout the county. He also says, “We’ve started our neighborhood watch program, we’re trying to get some things off the ground. Our personnel are working hard. We have plans we’re moving forward with, with the department.”

Cochran says he would start planning to help avoid crimes before they happen. Cochran closes, “I think our work ethic and strategy is a little different from each other. I am a proactive type of a person instead of a reactive type person.”

The two will face off August 4th in the Republican primary election.