GRAND HAVEN TOWNSHIP -- The Grand Haven Township couple who came under scrutiny about a month before the presidential election for hanging empty chairs in their front yard discovered an unwelcomed addition to their display of political signs, American flags and empty chairs this morning.

Ken and Judy David, who live across from an elementary school on Comstock Street, found a white outdoor chair marked with "4 more years," "racist pig" and other profanities at the end of their driveway the morning after the election. The chair's back, right leg was nailed to the David's driveway, as the other back leg remained airborne.

“It’s not nice,” Ken David said to his wife when they found the chair before 9 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7.

The Davids created a bit of a firestorm in Grand Haven Township since their display went up at the end of September. The couple suspended the chairs -- a play on Clint Eastwood's Republican National Convention address -- by a rope and posted political signs urging people to "Take Back Our Country in November."

The Lakeshore Ethnic Diversity Alliance in Ottawa County says the lawn chairs are racially insensitive as they are hoisted from a rope, invoking implications of a lynching. The alliance, which urged the Davids to take them down, held a "community conversation" public meeting on Oct. 4 where community members discussed the display and its interpreted implications.

“That person there is the racist,” Ken David said of those responsible for nailing the branded chair on his property. “I never was a racist and I never intended to be a racist. The only thing I’m for is liberty and freedom.”

A majority of the Davids' lawn chair display remains intact one day after the election with a suspended lawn chair near their house and another one – which replaced a chair that was stolen last month – hanging closer to the street. The latter chair now has a drying potted plant sitting in it as a sign of “distress,” Ken David said.

Judy David said they received “tremendous” support from people calling them and knocking on their door saying, “don’t take it down.”

When asked if they plan to continue displaying the chairs and signs, Ken David said, pointing to the nailed chair: “If I keep the chairs up, I’m going to hang them from one leg like that and let it hang down as a sign of distress. That’s what we’re involved in.”

Shortly after discovering the unwelcomed lawn ornament, Ken David removed the chair from his driveway.

“The signs will stay up and they might be up for four more years – if they last that long,” he said.

Ken said he is disappointed that he and his wife’s pick for president, Mitt Romney, lost the election Tuesday.

“I think it’s horrible that the president was re-elected,” Ken David said. “Inflation is going to skyrocket. We’re going to be hurting twice as bad right now. It’s just going to get worse in our country.”

Email Kyle Moroney at kmoroney@mlive.com or follow her at Twitter or Facebook

Related stories:

• Readers debate: Is hanging an empty lawn chair racially insensitive?

• Controversial political lawn chair display criticized, supported in Grand Haven forum

• Hanging lawn chairs at Grand Haven home don't offend neighbors, but spark community meeting tonight

• Owners of hanging lawn chair display say they won't attend Diversity Alliance forum in Grand Haven

• Clint Eastwood-style empty lawn chair display is 'freedom of expression,' not racial statement, resident says

