Dean Grose used to be Mayor and a City Councilman in Los Alamitos, California. In 2009, Grose resigned from both his positions after sending a racist email depicting watermelons growing on the lawn of the White House. Now, Grose is running for his old City Council seat once again.
Back in February, 2009, Grose became a household-internet name when he sent around the now-infamous email to a group of friends, including to one African-American businesswoman, Keyanus Price. The Orange County Register reported that the email had the heading: “No Easter Egg hunt this year,” and prompted Price to respond to Grose: “Hey, that’s not nice at all. Not all black people like watermelon, you should know better than that.” Grose replied: “The way things are today, you gotta laugh every now and then. I wanna see the coloring contests.”
Grose eventually released an official statement of apology, but the damage had been done. He resigned as Mayor, then as City Councilman a week later when the controversy didn’t go away.
But now he’s back, and he’s got the endorsement of the local Republican Central Committee. The OC Register reports:
Grose came to the full committee to ask for its not-inconsiderable endorsement, which can be touted on for slate mailers and other campaign literature. “Forgive me for my prior incident and allow me to move forward,” he implored a packed tent at the Irvine Hyatt.
There are six other candidates running for three open seats.
Jillian Rayfield
Jillian Rayfield is a Reporter/Blogger for TPM, and started as a News Intern in May 2009. She graduated from Cornell University in May 2008 with a degree in Film, and worked as a Research Assistant for a market research firm in London in between.
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