'MySpace Mayor' Gains Celebrity Status on NBC's Today Show (VIDEO)

Most people believe Carmen Gronquist got the short end of the stick.

Photos from Carmen Gronquist's MySpace page

(SALEM, Ore.) - She may no longer be the Mayor of Arlington, Oregon, but Carmen Gronquist is increasingly becoming a national celebrity since media sources outed her photos from MySpace, showing her clad in lingerie and, as many people writing to Salem-News.com have stated, looking quite good, with a healthy tan and plenty of tone.

Today she was featured on NBC's Today Show live, talking about the recent struggle to retain her office in spite of the fallout from the photos, in this small, conservative Eastern Oregon city.

"I had thousands of people e-mail me on MySpace and [ask] for signed photos," the 42-year-old told Today Show hosts.

"We thought about it. We will be donating a portion back to the local ambulance service I’m very involved with and to our health district."

Ironically, it was a city fire/ambulance type vehicle that she posed with in the lingerie photo that caused so much flack. The more important fact may be that she had the photo taken before becoming mayor.

The Today Show points put that in the news stories, the picture of her posing on a town fire truck in an opaque black bra and matching boy-short panties, have invariably led to her description as either "racy" or "risqué."

In reality, she pointed out, the picture doesn’t show as much as the average swimsuit that you can find on most beaches in the summer.

She talked about her former role as a local lifeguard who normally wore a string bikini, Of the local townspeople she described the string bikini as, "much more revealing than what’s on the poster."

Ebay visitors can buy her photos while they are available. We have included a couple of different images of Gronquist in this piece, to show another side to this ousted mayor who is drawing strong support from all over the nation as well as criticism, and definitely putting a place called Arlington, Oregon on the map.

The video below shows former Arlington, Oregon Mayor Carmen Gronquist's other images from YouTube along with a few other select shots of Arlington, set to a version of "Harper Valley PTA" performed by Margie Brandon. It is meant as tongue in cheek, but based on the comments we have received, this woman has much stronger national support than she does from her own townspeople.

Both videos come to us courtesy of YouTube:

Video

Here is FOX News coverage featuring Carmen Gronquist where the hosts suggest the fundraising possibilities that the photo could represent. That is what she is using part of the proceeds from the EBay sales, she said:

Tim King: Salem-News.com Editor and Writer

Tim King has more than twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. Tim is Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. His background includes covering the war in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, and reporting from the Iraq war in 2008. Tim is a former U.S. Marine who follows stories of Marines and Marine Veterans; he's covered British Royal Marines and in Iraq, Tim embedded with the same unit he served with in the 1980's.

Tim holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing from traditional mainstream news agencies like The Associated Press and Electronic Media Association; he also holds awards from the National Coalition of Motorcyclists, the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs; and was presented with a 'Good Neighbor Award' for his reporting, by the The Red Cross.

Tim's years as a Human Rights reporter have taken on many dimensions; he has rallied for a long list of cultures and populations and continues to every day, with a strong and direct concentration on the 2009 Genocide of Tamil Hindus and Christians in Sri Lanka. As a result of his long list of reports exposing war crimes against Tamil people, Tim was invited to be the keynote speaker at the FeTNA (Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America) Conference in Baltimore, in July 2012. This is the largest annual gathering of North American Tamils; Tim addressed more than 3000 people and was presented with a traditional Sri Lanka ‘blessed garland’ and a shawl as per the tradition and custom of Tamil Nadu

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