Marilyn Davenport, the California GOP official who sent an email depicting President Obama and his parents as chimpanzees, has issued an apology… but insists she will not resign.

Her apology read: "To my fellow Americans and to everyone else who has seen this email I forwarded and was offended by my action, I humbly apologize and ask for your forgiveness of my unwise behavior," she wrote. "I say unwise because at the time I received and forwarded the email, I didn't stop to think about the historic implications and other examples of how this could be offensive."

Last weekend, Davenport sent out a photo of a chimpanzee family with President Obama's head superimposed on the baby chimp and the phrase: "Now you know -- why no birth certificate." Critics quickly labled the email racist and called for her resignaton.

Davenport, a member of the Orange County GOP, initially insisted that she had done nothing wrong, calling the uproar "much to do [sic] about nothing."

"Our hands are tied by the state's elections codes," Republican County Chair Scott Baugh was quoted as saying on the TheRoot.com. "There are only three grounds for removal, but being a racist is not one of them."

Meanwhile, Alice Huffman, president of the NAACP's California State Conference, was quoted as saying: “There is no way that depicting the President of the United States as less than human can be considered anything but a racist act."

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