SPRINGFIELD – While attendance at Sheriff Nick Cocchi’s annual picnic may have been affected by the uncertain weather on Aug. 21, the hundreds that attended rubbed elbows with local elected officials and would-be officials – a hallmark of the event.

State representatives, city councilors, mayors and candidates met with one another for both socializing and campaigning.

The highest-ranking official was Sen. Edward Markey, who made the picnic one of his stops in a swing-through the region. Speaking to Reminder Publishing, Markey expressed some frustration with the gridlock in the Senate.

“There’s a graveyard of legislation that Mitch McConnell has created,” Markey said. “We don’t even have a vote whether or not we should have background checks buying a gun. We don’t have a vote on protecting pre-existing conditions. We don’t even have a vote on climate change. Is it real, should we do anything? It’s very frustrating because we know that voters want action on these issues but if you don’t have debates, don’t have any votes, ultimately the country suffers.”

Markey believes there is “a level of enthusiasm I’ve never seen in my life” for a change in the White House.

“In 2016 they did not fully understand what the risk was in having Donald Trump become president. We going to see a turn-out this time from the other side, the Democratic side, we have not seen in generations,” he predicted.

Markey is backing “my great partner [Elizabeth Warren] in the Senate” for president.

The congressional race in 2020 was represented at the picnic with both Democrat Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse and Republican challenger businessman and veteran John Cain attending.

Morse has been campaigning throughout the district since his recent announcement. He said, “I’m committed to showing up everywhere and talking to people.”

Morse said that if he is elected he would serve as a member of Congress as he has campaigned: starting a series of town halls meetings throughout the district every year and being active in the district.

Morse said residents outside of Hampden County have voiced concerns about the presence of mass transportation and the absence in many areas of broadband.

He asserted that having a powerful member of Congress is not helping people get the services they need. Morse, added, “They wonder who is government really looking out for?”

Morse believes, if elected, he could be present in the district – which touches four counties – which he added is the hallmark as his time of mayor in Holyoke, attending events, being accessible to constituents in his office and talking to residents.

“The only way to know people’s challenges and stories is to directly interact with them,” he said. “This is less about Congressman Neal and how long he has been there and more about the challenges I see each and every day here in Western Massachusetts – the fact that Western Massachusetts continues to fall behind the rest of the state and the rest of the country in economic growth, education and health, issue after issue,”

Speaking of ignoring political conventional wisdom of running against a powerful incumbent, Morse added, “I care less about conventional wisdom and more about the people I represent.”

Neal’s Republican opponent, Southwick businessman and veteran John Cain was also at the picnic and said, “this is a good time for change,” which is motivating his run against Neal.

If he is elected Cain said his plan is to “get a dialogue” started among members of Congress in order see progress. He said he doesn’t have a political agenda but rather “want to help the people of Western Massachusetts and the Unites States as a whole.”

Building a trained labor force is one of his principle issues. He said, “Skilled labor is a huge issue. I own a construction company and we’re having a hard time finding people to work for us that have skill, drive, and motivation to get up and go to work.”

Health concerns such as dealing with the opioid crisis is also high on his list of priorities. He also believes that preventative health care in the earlier ages of a person’s life will help manage the cots of health care in old age.

As a small business owner, he said that government regulations make it difficult for a small business “to get ahead.” He believes more power should be given to states to address business regulations.

State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg also attended the picnic and said that despite having three casinos in the Commonwealth, the Massachusetts State Lottery has not been affected.

She noted that Parkridge and MGM Springfield have been selling state lottery products and called them “great lottery agents.” She said it’s too early to see what the impact of Encore will be.

She noted, “We had a record year for the second time since I’ve been treasurer. We returned over $1 billion back to every community in the state because we done a lot of things in modernizing the lottery and making sure to give unrestricted aid to every community throughout the entire state.”

Goldberg said the Massachusetts State Lottery is the only system she knows of in which the profits goes back to all of the cities and town in the Commonwealth.

She called the Commonwealth’s revenues right now  “very strong,” and said the state has been able to bolster its “rainy day fund.”