The e-mail includes a poem about immigrants buying up property with welfare money and displacing white people.
"I thought it was humorous the way it was written," Adams said. "I didn't see anything offensive about it, and I forwarded it on to folks."
One stanza reads: "We have a hobby -- it's called breeding/Welfare pay for baby feeding."
Adams said he offered to resign after getting calls from news media about the e-mail. Sean Tonner, campaign manager for the 51-year-old Republican governor, said he accepted the resignation.
"It's unfortunate; it was a serious lapse of judgment that he forwarded it," Tonner said. "It definitely was insensitive and inappropriate."
Adams said he resigned because "I don't have time for this. ... I signed up to be volunteer treasurer, not to be in politics. I've gone all my life without my name in the paper. I don't need to start now."
Glenn Baham, president of Colorado Black Republicans, said he received the e-mail and found it shocking.
"I was very, very offended," Baham said. "I couldn't believe it."
Last month, another Colorado politician, Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo, drew criticism when he demanded immigration officials deport a family of illegal immigrants after a high school honor student in the family spoke publicly about his struggle to pay for college.
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