Mayor's mom blames ‘illegal voting’ for his election loss - and he has to apologize

Mayor James Rotundo of Palisades Park, New Jersey, was forced to apologize for a Facebook post by his mother that many said was racist because it blamed Koreans for his election loss.

Here's what the post said

Lorraine Rotundo blamed Koreans for the close election that appeared to trend towards her Democrat son losing narrowly. The Facebook post accused the ethnic group of using illegal voting in order to defeat her son.

She commented, "illegal voting by KOREAN VOTERS!!!!!! (sorry,Jim as your mom ,Cannot be quiet,I have to tell the truth )"

She explained, "koreans arrived by bus load from korean churches and voter,non spoke english and needed korean help voting, so they were acompnied into voting booths..."

She also objected to the use of Korean in the city and in city hall.

"Go to hell PALISADES PARK, let the GD KOREANS have this F'n town," Rotundo commented. "All of us AMERICANS are so done. I am going to suggest that only English be spoken in our Boro Hall at least while an AMERICAN is still the mayor."

"Any American working there has no idea what is going on because Korean is mostly spoken there, not English," she added.

Screenshots of the offensive post were shared on social media.

"A very inappropriate Facebook message"

Mayor James Rotundo issued an apology for the comments from his mother, which were also deleted, in his own Facebook post.

"Yesterday my 80 year old mother, who I love dearly, put up a very inappropriate Facebook message that she sincerely regrets," he wrote. "She has apologized and retracted her statement."

"I have never heard my mom talk like this before and I believe her when she says she is mortified and did not mean these hurtful things," he added. "I want to make it clear to everyone that I do not agree with these remarks and that I am very upset and saddened by this incident."

Rotundo was running against Councilman Chris Chung, who would be the first Korean-American mayor of Palisades Park if he wins the election.