Juan Garcia update

There's been a Juan Garcia sighting, in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times:

Politics seems to love Juan Garcia, the retired Navy pilot whose name had been thrown around earlier this year as a possible mayoral candidate. Questions remain, however, about whether Garcia loves politics.

Rumors began circulating last week that Garcia is planning a run for the U.S. Senate, rumors that Garcia isn't denying.

A new Web site (www.garciafortexas.com) asked for donations and calls Garcia a "new face" with "tested leadership, Texas values." On Friday afternoon, the political messages had been removed and replaced with a one-line statement: "The site is temporarily down for routine maintenance and will be back up shortly." Garcia is a graduate of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and is a retired flight instructor at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi. He did not run for mayor. An item in the political newsletter The Quorum Report mentioned the most recent Web site and quoted Austin-based consultant Jeff Hewitt as saying the site looked like a "draft Juan campaign." "I'm not even sure Juan knows who's behind it," Hewitt told The Quorum Report. "I don't think Juan has made a decision."

Well, I don't know if this adds to the mystery or subtracts from it, but it's easy enough to do a whois lookup:

Domain Name.......... garciafortexas.com
Creation Date........ 2005-04-22
Registration Date.... 2005-04-22
Expiry Date.......... 2007-04-22
Organisation Name.... Richard Salazar
Organisation Address. p.o. box 480311
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address. Los Angeles
Organisation Address. 90048
Organisation Address. CA
Organisation Address. UNITED STATES
Admin Name........... Richard Salazar
Admin Address........ p.o. box 480311
Admin Address........
Admin Address........ Los Angeles
Admin Address........ 90048
Admin Address........ CA
Admin Address........ UNITED STATES
Admin Email.......... [email protected]
Admin Phone.......... 323-350-1802
Admin Fax............
Tech Name............ Tim Uzzanti
Tech Address......... 6135 N. 7th St.
Tech Address.........
Tech Address......... Phoenix
Tech Address......... 85014-1812
Tech Address......... Arizona
Tech Address......... UNITED STATES
Tech Email........... [email protected]
Tech Phone........... 1.6022630300
Tech Fax............. 1.6022630600
Name Server.......... ns1.webcontrolcenter.com
Name Server.......... ns2.webcontrolcenter.com

Like I say, I have no idea if that clears things up or raises more questions, but it's there to be looked at.

Back to the story:

In an e-mail to the CallerTimes, Garcia did not distance himself from the Web site.

"We met with folks from Austin, Dallas, and D.C. who made a compelling case for running for the U.S. Senate," he wrote "Some friends hung a very rudimentary Web site up earlier this week, really just to gauge interest, and from there things have taken off.

"Of course I'm interested in continuing to serve our country, and am obligated to think through an opportunity like this. But we also recognize it's a momentous undertaking, particularly in a state the size of ours. I'm discussing it with family and friends."

Yes, it's a big darned undertaking. I look forward to hearing what your decision is, hopefully soon. Thanks to Ausquant on the Texas_KOS mailing list for finding this.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on May 31, 2005 to Election 2006 | TrackBack