November 2, 2009 - 12:00 AM
Arpaio to stump for sheriff's candidate
By TONY SAAVEDRA

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has hunted down illegal immigrants with such enthusiasm that federal government officials personally ordered him to stop.

He's made inmates sleep in tents, work on chain gangs and wear pink underwear.

And he is the sheriff after whom Orange County sheriff's candidate Bill Hunt is modeling himself.

Arpaio will be in the county Thursday to stump for Hunt, a former lieutenant who is making his second run at the office. Hunt has stepped up his campaign to unseat Sheriff Sandra Hutchens.

He makes no apologies for aligning himself with Arpaio, the subject of a Pulitzer Prize-winning exposé by the East Valley Tribune in Mesa, Ariz. (owned by Freedom Communications, owner of The Orange County Register). Reporters described how Arpaio's illegal-immigration patrols resulted in slower response times in other areas.

The paper also said the department came under federal investigation on suspicion of racial profiling and of improper stops and search and seizures.

Last month the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ended a partnership with Arpaio to arrest illegal immigrants solely on their immigration status. Arpaio said he will keep doing it anyway.

Hunt makes no apologies for calling him a mentor.

“I'm not saying everything Arpaio has done is applicable to Orange County,â€