Kansas county official tells African American official he belongs to 'the master race'

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) -- Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer has called on a white county official to resign after the official said at a public meeting that he belongs to "the master race."

Leavenworth County Commissioner Louis Klemp cited the master race -- the Nazi ideology of Aryan supremacy -- at a board meeting Tuesday while responding to a presentation by a black official, Triveece Penelton, on road development options in Tonganoxie, just west of Kansas City.

Colyer, a Republican, says in a statement Saturday that the remark was unacceptable. He says: "Racial and discriminative language have no place in our society and most especially when spoken by someone holding public office."

Some other members of the county commission have called on Klemp to resign.

Klemp told KSHB-TV off camera that his comment was a joke.