Former Town Official Wendy Cochrane and local eccentric Cherise Hoak have been engaged in a battle of wits or twits, as the case may be, for years. Hoak, despite often behaving like a Tasmanian Devil after six espressos on social media, was an early advocate for removing Cochrane’s unhealthy grip over Town Hall. These two despised each other for years, in part because of the involvement of Hoak’s husband on the Berkley finance committee. At one point Hoak even tried to use citizen’s petitions to prevent Cochrane from simultaneously holding 42.6 jobs in Town Hall for the rest of her life.
For those of you not familiar with Cherise Hoak, here are a couple of her greatest hits over the years. We’ll provide a complimentary wet nap at the end of this blog.
As the spring of 2026 became summer, Cochrane and Hoak have often found themselves on the same side of the local political divide. Both have been arguing and ranting about the state of Berkley government for months with the volume on 11. As we’ve documented previously, the evidence we’ve reviewed has led us to believe that Cochrane is behind the anonymous Berkley Tax Payer account. Between posts from her own account and those appearing under Berkley Tax Payer, the same disputed claims and narratives have repeatedly made their way into local conversations, fueling confusion and conflict along the way.
As the accounts interacted over time, a number of commenters started pointing out that Hoak was missing something with respect to the person behind the Berkley Tax Payer. And naturally that brought local influencer Noel Edgren out of the woodwork to get Mrs. Hoak back on board, and more importantly, to steady the ship for Ms. Cochrane.
And Mrs. Hoak eventually went along with it. It’s a fantastic development if you’re an up and coming local blog on the lookout for content. We then see how a loud and aggressive stream of perpetual misinformation by these same people eventually begins to pay dividends through people like Cherise Hoak. As a small group continue to bring drama and rumor into the discussion and comments, logical opinion is eventually driven over a cliff. Here is an example. It may seem ridiculous and crazy and that’s because it is. But if someone says it loud enough and long enough, someone else is eventually going to believe it.
We checked and confirmed that panic buttons are not being installed in Town Hall offices. That is a rumor former Town official Wendy Cochrane has been linked to in recent weeks as part of her ongoing campaign to sow chaos throughout Berkley.
How do we know? Because it’s very much the same rumor that Ms. Cochrane was floating about Mrs. Hoak several years ago, when they were locked in a battle to see which one could score lower in a battle of wits. The only difference now seems to be that Hoak doesn’t recognize a rumor that was once about her, has now been repurposed for her to use as part of the rumor mill. From where we’re sitting, there is considerable irony in watching her embrace a claim remarkably similar to one Cochrane once aimed in Hoak’s direction.
Tough break, but we’re here for you Cherise. If you happen to see them around town, the two Twits are still accepting congratulations for getting the recall law passed. It seems like Mrs. Hoak has some free time on her hands. If she thinks they should be replaced, it’s a wonderful opportunity to stop ranting on social media, bring her time and energy to the real world, and help get the Twits recalled. Actually, please don’t stop ranting on social media, Cherise. We love your content!
Perhaps the strangest part of all this is that Cochrane and Hoak don’t even need to formally bury the hatchet. Social media seems to have done it for them. Two people who spent years on opposite sides of the barricades are now helping push remarkably similar narratives about Town Hall, with Hoak apparently unaware of who we believe is standing behind one of the accounts feeding the conversation. Only in Berkley could a political feud end without either side realizing there had been a reconciliation.
The Lead up to May
We expect to see more fur fly as Berkley prepares for an uncomfortably quiet fall leading up to the spring election season. Future misinformation campaigns will instinctively flock back to social media like the salmon of Capistrano. Will residents and voters continue to fall prey to the small group of people manically posting disinformation of social media?
We will continue to point these occurrences out, as they often play out in the public sphere of social media. Many see these inartful machinations for the manipulation that they are and move on. But others stick around; some to engage and others merely to catch up on the rumors of the day. That is where “Berkley Tax Payer,” and the person the evidence has led us to believe is behind it, finds fertile ground for another round of Berkley’s favorite pastime: manufacturing outrage.
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