Pendergraph came off as a decided moderate in our endorsement process, a comportment not entirely inconsistent with his work the past year-plus as a Mecklenburg County commissioner. He sounded reasonable on immigration, saying that illegal immigrants who are already here should be allowed to stay here. He supported comprehensive immigration reform and allowing current illegal immigrants to pay some penalty and then have a path to citizenship.
He also talked about his disdain for the polarization that plagues Washington today. He said balancing the budget would require something like the Bowles-Simpson plan, and specifically said taxes may have to rise as part of a comprehensive plan to erase the deficit. “Let’s be honest – it’s not going to be without pain for all of us,” he said.
How sensible.
Then he rallied in Huntersville with Maricopa County (Ariz.) Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a Melvillian character on a never-ending crusade against Latinos. The only thing that energizes Arpaio more than stroking his ego is profiling Hispanics. The U.S. Justice Department found Arpaio led “a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos” and one expert in the report said Arpaio led the worst racial profiling in U.S. history.
Pendergraph pandered further this week by saying he has “reason to be suspicious” about whether President Obama was born in the United States. “… Generally when there’s smoke, there’s got to be fire somewhere,” he said, even as he acknowledged “I haven’t seen the facts.”
It all gives one the sense that Pendergraph will say whatever a given audience wants to hear, if it will help him get elected. That makes how he would act in Congress a mystery.
