The Republican candidate for an open Minnesota Senate seat apologized Wednesday for comments posted on his Twitter account about President Barack Obama and Democrats, including one that called Obama a “Power Hungry Arrogant Black Man.”

That seat is Senate District 26, which includes the cities of Waseca, Faribault and Owatonna.

Democrats held an afternoon news conference to distribute images of two posts dated in May from Mike Parry’s account on the social networking site. The other said, “whats with the Dems and Pedophiles?”

A statement issued by Parry said the Waseca businessman was taking responsibility for “all mistakes in my past tweets.”

“I sincerely apologize for past tweets which were written in haste and out of the frustration I felt for the out of control spending in Washington,” Parry said.

Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chairman Brian Melendez called Parry’s Twitter comments “hateful, racist and homophobic.” He said the post mentioning pedophiles referred to legislation expanding federal hate crimes law to include violence against gays.

Melendez said he is not satisfied with Parry’s apology.

“It’s vague and ambiguous and you can’t tell what he’s talking about,” Melendez said at the Capitol news conference.

Parry is running against Democrat Jason Engbrecht and Independence Party candidate Roy Srp in a Jan. 26 special election in southern Minnesota. The winner will finish the term of longtime Republican state Sen. Dick Day, who resigned to become a lobbyist. The seat will be on the ballot again in November.