Cass Ballenger Thomas Cass Ballenger ( born December 6 , 1926 ) is an American politician . A Republican , he represented North Carolina ' s 10th Congressional district , centered in North Carolina ' s foothills , in the United States House of Representatives from 1986 to 2005 . Biography . Ballenger was born in Hickory , North Carolina . He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and later earned his B . A . from Amherst College . He served in the United States Naval Air Corps during World War II . A plastics executive in his hometown of Hickory , Ballenger had previously served in the North Carolina State House of Representatives from 1974 until 1976 , and the North Carolina State Senate from 1976 until 1986 . In the November 1986 elections , Ballenger was simultaneously elected to serve the remainder of 23 - year incumbent Jim Broyhill ' s term ( Broyhill had been appointed to the Senate ) and to his own first term . He was reelected nine more times , all by landslide margins in what , according to some , has become the most Republican district in North Carolina . Not surprisingly , his voting record was very conservative . As a member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce , Ballenger chaired the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections . As chairman , Ballenger drafted legislation that was eventually enacted that reformed the Occupational Health and Safety Administration [ OSHA ] , making OSHA less adversarial toward American businesses . Like the back country constituents he served , Ballenger resisted the notion of a large federal government and sought to minimize government regulation . From 1982 to 2002 , Ballenger displayed a black lawn jockey in front of his Hickory home . Some African Americans in Hickory criticized Ballenger for the lawn jockey , which they understood to be a symbol of racism . In 1994 , a Democratic opponent featured the lawn jockey on a campaign brochure . Ballenger , along with his wife , established the Ballenger Foundation in 1990 to raise funds for schools and hospitals in Central and South America . He has been active in that region for over thirty five years , receiving humanitarian awards from various organizations , including the Fabretto Children ' s Foundation , for his work . In 2004 , alongside several other Republican members of Congress , including Mark Souder and Katherine Harris , Ballenger submitted an amicus curiae brief in the Supreme Court case " Gonzales v . Raich " , defending the federal government ' s power to raid , arrest , prosecute and imprison patients who use medical marijuana even in states that have declared such use legally permitted . When asked about Trent Lott ' s controversial comments on December 5 , 2002 about Strom Thurmond ' s , Ballenger made disparaging comments about outgoing Rep . Cynthia McKinney . If I had to listen to her , I probably would have developed a little bit of a segregationist feeling . But I think everybody can look at my life and what I ' ve done and say that ' s not true . I mean , she was such a bitch . — Cass Ballenger , " The Charlotte Observer " , December 20 , 2002 He later apologized , denying that the statement reflected any racist feelings . Rather , he said that he was trying to make a pont that " almost anybody can develop an animosity to individuals , " and that he singled out McKinney because he felt she was " less than patriotic . " Later , one of his aides was seen painting over the black lawn jockey in Ballenger ' s yard . Ballenger retired in 2004 and was succeeded by one - term Republican state representative Patrick T . McHenry . In 2008 presidential election , he endorsed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination and endorsed incumbent Patrick T . McHenry in the NC Primaries . Ancestry . He is the great - great - grandson of nineteenth century politician Lewis Cass , and was probably named after him . Cass was a Territorial Governor of Michigan , U . S . Senator from Michigan , U . S . Secretary of War , U . S . Secretary of State and was the Democratic Party ' s nominee for President of the United States in 1848 .