Voters Speak Out
In recall vote. They want Arlington, Ore., to be known across America for the ex-mayor’s breasts. AP:
ARLINGTON, Ore. (AP) — The mayor of an Oregon town who once stripped to her underwear and posed on a fire truck has been stripped of her office.
Voters in this town of about 500 voted narrowly Monday to recall Carmen Kontur-Gronquist. The tally was 142-139. City officials said the recall is effective Tuesday.
Kontur-Gronquist said the pictures of her in black bra and panties were taken for use in a contest about fitness, but a relative posted them on MySpace in hopes it would improve the social life of the single mother.
They predated her election, but she said she saw no reason to take them off the popular Web site once elected three years ago. Later, she closed access to them.
Opponents said it wasn’t fitting for the mayor to be so depicted. They said they also disagreed with her on issues about water and the local golf course.
Tough issue. There’s the dignity of Arlington, Ore. Then, there’s the dignity of Arlington, Ore. It’s their town, their government. I never heard of it until they got worked up about some pretty tame MySpace art. 
Sooner or later issues like this are bound to burst out in a national election, thanks to MySpace, camera phones and plummeting modesty standards/rocketing exhibitionism even at the highest levels of American society. Good thing we don’t have Sharia law, anyway, or they’d probably be slicing more than just golf balls on the offending municipal gold course about now.
So who comes off looking like the bigger boobs in this? Oregonian:
“This community has become divided over this thing,” said Alice Courtney, a councilor who supported the recall. “Even though I’m on what’s considered the winning side, there are no winners in this.”
The ex-mayor accepts the vote, no bitterness. Sounds like a pretty civic-minded citizen, as they go. Kontur-Gronquist moved Arlington 16 years ago. She has kept books for the fire department and worked as a lifeguard at the city pool and now manages the rural health clinic’s office. In 2005, she became the first female mayor of Arlington, population 481. She had 10 months left in her term.
…
Kontur-Gronquist said she’s moving on, now that the recall is behind her. She plans to focus on her daughter, who is a high school senior. She has no plans to pursue public office again.
“I will be involved in the city and issues, of course,” she said. “You betcha. That is what I wanted to do in the first place. I regret nothing.”
She is also selling signed 11-by-14-inch prints of her infamous photo on eBay. A portion of each sale will go to the Arlington Volunteer Ambulance Service, where she volunteers. Bidding starts at $15.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:55 am on Wednesday, February 27, 2008
4 Responses to “Voters Speak Out”
Leave a Reply
Trackback URLYou must be logged in to post a comment.
February 27th, 2008 at 10:40 am
I admire her initiative, energy, and charity. Wonder what the citizens would have thought about a buff male mayor posing for beefcake?
February 27th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Ewwww. She wins, hands down. Beefcake, yuck, disgusting. ;)
February 27th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Arlington is a nice town (it’s just a few hours drive from here), and is much more rational about these matters than the larger, “more sophisticated” urban areas to the west (e.g., Portland, also known as “Little Beirut”).
If Carmen had been an elected official there (say, Mayor), a recall petition for a similar act would have resulted in mass protests by underemployed lefties and ancient hippies, with the female segment decrying the blatant $exism and anti-feminist prejudices, and the male segment hoping that the Mayor would re-enact the photo shoot for them.
It’s refreshing to see a mature end to this situation. Vote over, time to move on. I love it.
February 28th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Mayor is gone
Jules Crittenden has more, and asks: “who comes off looking like the bigger boobs in this?”