Ilario Pantano must’ve excelled in boot camp: his back is straight as a board. He talks fast, like a Gatling gun with infinite ammo (some of his buddies call him "Hurricane Ilario"). He’s quick, direct, articulate and approachable. His gaze is intense, leaving any audience tinged with his memory.
Pantano is one Republican contender attempting to unseat the seven-time North Carolina Democrat in the state’s 7th District, Congressman Mike McIntyre.
The Pantano campaign is now a full-time affair. And whether to his benefit or detriment, the retired Marine has name recognition: he gained the international spotlight when the government accused him of murder, and then later exonerated all charges for the shooting deaths of two Iraqis in Mahmudiya in 2004.
That experience left him scarred, Pantano says, but not broken. He has reshaped that baggage into a message that emphasizes his armed service. And he’s leveraged his experience as a former Goldman Sachs trader, small business owner and father, to underline a tough stance on greed, fiscal responsibility and conservatism.
His platform is comprised of three tiers: job creation and economic development, national security and conservative values.
It’s a message likely to ring the ears of far right Republicans hoping to capitalize on reports of disenchantment with the Democrats.
"To have two former military heroes running for Congress speaks well for our party, which is rooted in deep patriotism," said Sandy Best, the president of the Lower Cape Fear Republican Women’s Club, after meeting Pantano for the first time.
Also running against McIntyre are Will Breazeale, a three-time combat veteran, and Randy Crow.
At a club meeting on March 4 at Bluewater Restaurant in Wrightsville Beach, Best approached Pantano with a candid inquiry regarding the 2004 shooting incident.
Having read the Associated Press account of the shooting, published that morning, which included the fact that Pantano left a sign on the insurgent’s vehicle that read, "No better friend, no worse enemy," a famous Marine motto, Best asked, Why the sign?
He said that it’s difficult to understand from a spectator’s view the urgency, panic and hysteria of warfare.
"We think about it, act on it like it’s rational. But it is the most irrational part of humankind," he said.
Asked later if it’s a question posed frequently, Pantano replied, "Actually no...But it’s a totally legitimate question."
Within 10 minutes after meeting Best, Pantano had already shaken hands with dozens of other people amassed in the meeting room.
His scheduling manager, Ron Holmes, also a retired Marine, had to peel Pantano away so they would be on time for his final engagement of the night: speaking to a group of Wilmington firefighters in the Moose Lodge on Carolina Beach Road.
In that room of first-responders, seemingly awash in southern conservative ideals, Pantano struck their chord by highlighting his own Sept. 11 experience, support for gun rights and rolling back taxes.
Pantano even said he favors making English the nation’s official language.
When asked about his nationalism, Pantano likes to tell the story of his father, an Italian immigrant who moved to New York and worked in a comb factory in Spanish Harlem for a dollar an hour. Pantano seems proud that he never learned to speak Italian. The goal, he says, was to always speak English at home so his father would learn it.
Pantano jokes that he is a "born again southerner." He explains it like this: "I’m a self-hating New Yorker that has rejected the immorality and godlessness of where I was born to choose a place to raise my family." He moved to North Carolina in 2003.
Despite his conservative appeal, Pantano says he is not the typical Republican. In fact, he told Lumina News, he was a registered independent until recently.
In a county, that nearly always leans to red, Pantano could rise as a contender after the May 4 primary.
Either way, this election is wide-open, with no clear ending in sight.
--Brian Freskos
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