Will Joe Arpaio’s Endorsement Hurt Rick Perry?

As you’ve probably heard, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will be in New Hampshire today where he’s expected to endorse Texas Governor Rick Perry in the Republican presidential primary.

Arpaio’s nod could be a double-edged sword for Perry, though, who many far-right-wingers — a.k.a. the people who typically vote in Republican primaries — consider to be soft on illegal immigration.

As we noted in our post about Arpaio’s support of Perry yesterday, during a GOP primary debate earlier this year, Perry stunned his opponents with the following — rational — comment about illegal immigrants.

“If you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they’ve been brought there by no fault of their own, I don’t think you have a heart,” Perry said in defense of his policy of offering the children of undocumented immigrants in Texas in-state tuition fees to attend state universities.

Since his remarks, Perry’s done everything he can to convince GOP primary voters that he’s the type of border bully they want in the White House — including courting Arpaio.

However, should Perry make it out of the primary, he’ll have Arpaio — and all the baggage that comes with America’s self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff” (namely, the sheriff’s costing taxpayers millions in lawsuits, the alleged civil rights violations, etc., etc., etc.) — on his back.

In other words, in the general election, Arpaio’s endorsement could potentially be toxic for Perry’s campaign, as Democrats, Independents, and moderate Republicans don’t typically subscribe to the sheriff’s hardline, wild-west brand of brown-bashing BS.

We want to know what you think, though: could Arpaio’s endorsement hurt Perry?

Cast your vote below.