TALLAHASSEE — State Sen. Ed Hooper, a retired firefighter who oversees the Senate’s powerful budget committee, announced he was retiring on Election Day this year, paving the way for Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco to replace him.
In a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday, Hooper said he was leaving the Senate two years before his term ends after considering “what is best for both our family in this season of life and our community.”
“I have remained committed to putting my constituents first, supporting hardworking individuals and families through extreme weather events, a global pandemic, rapid population growth, and a changing economy so we can have a brighter, bolder future,” Hooper wrote.
His letter does not mention Nocco. But within minutes of Hooper’s announcement, two future Senate presidents, Jim Boyd and Jay Trumbull, announced they were endorsing the 15-year sheriff to replace Hooper in a special election.
Nocco followed up with an announcement on Facebook that he was running as a conservative Republican fighting for “family-focused, Florida-first ideas.”
“I’ve witnessed firsthand just how impactful decisions made in Tallahassee can be for the safety, security and prosperity of our state,” he said in the announcement.
Nocco, who said he would resign in November, did not respond to a request for comment.
The Senate district covers northern Pinellas County and southwest Pasco County.
First elected to the House in 2006, Hooper spent 16 years in the Legislature, where he developed a reputation as a pro-union Republican with a deadpan sense of humor. For the last two years, he’s shepherded the Senate’s fractious budget negotiations with the House, which led to weeks of delays.
The Legislature is in Tallahassee for a special session, trying to pass a budget for the upcoming fiscal year. On Tuesday, Hooper said he was against the Legislature assigning $150 million to help the Tampa Bay Rays build a stadium in Hillsborough County without the team reaching agreements with local governments.
Nocco, who has been the Pasco County sheriff since being appointed by then-Gov. Rick Scott in 2011, has deep political connections. For four years, he worked in Florida’s House of Representatives, eventually becoming a top aide to Marco Rubio when he was the House speaker.
His wife, Bridget Nocco, has been a longtime lobbyist for Ballard Partners, a high-powered lobbying firm with ties to President Donald Trump.
In 2011, former Pasco County Sheriff Bob White retired before the end of his term, leaving his successor up to appointment. Onlookers speculated that White had left the post early so fellow Republicans could hand-select the next sheriff; White has denied that as a “conspiracy.”
When Scott appointed Nocco as sheriff, he was two years into his tenure at the Sheriff’s Office.
Under Nocco, the Sheriff’s Office launched a plan to create an intelligence program that could curb crime before it started. But the result was a system that monitored and harassed Pasco residents, according to a 2020 Times investigation. The office would send deputies to interrogate anyone who appeared on their list of people likely to break the law, based on arrest histories, unspecified intelligence and arbitrary decisions by police analysts.
The Sheriff’s Office also kept a secret list of school kids they thought could “fall into a life of crime,” based on factors like grades or abuse history. Children and their parents didn’t know about being placed on the list — and former Pasco County Superintendent Kurt Browning said he wasn’t aware that the sheriff was using school data for their program either.
Pasco County Tax Collector Mike Fasano said Wednesday that Nocco would do a “wonderful job representing the area.”
“Sheriff Nocco has always indicated he wanted to represent the area in Tallahassee one day,” Fasano said. “The sheriff is extremely popular, not only in Pasco but outside of Pasco.”
