Now it's a race.

Three candidates are vying for two seats on the Grass Valley City Council after Ed Yarborough, 56, pulled papers this week.

Yarborough, who works in insurance, joins incumbent Dan Miller and first-time candidate Pat Tureaud in the race.

The trio will compete for Miller and outgoing Councilman Chauncey Poston's seats.

Poston will not run in November, he said.

Yarborough ran for city council first in 2008, finishing last in a six-candidate race; the three available seats went to Mayor Lisa Swarthout, Vice Mayor Janet Arbuckle and Councilwoman Yolanda Cookson.

He garnered nearly 700 votes, running mostly on an anti-illegal alien platform.

Similar concerns led him to pull papers this week, he said.

“I find the other candidates don't address the issues I think are important,” Yarborough said. “There is a growing illegal alien problem in Grass Valley.”

When Grass Valley's St. Patrick's Catholic Church began a monthly Spanish-language Mass in 2006, he picketed the church, accusing it of harboring illegal immigrants.

To contact Staff Writer Kyle Magin, e-mail kmagin@theunion.com or call (530) 477-4239.