UPDATED after the jump
The race to replace retiring State Rep. Brian McCall (R-Plano) brings a rare non-wonkish story to The Texas Tribune. Vying for the seat are Plano City Councilwoman Mabrie Jackson, Iraq War veteran Van Taylor, and the leader of a group called the “National Coalition for Defense of American Sovereignty,” a fellow named Wayne Richard. He never paid much attention to state or local politics until 2008, when he started getting angry and later got involved in the North Texas Tea Party. Richard’s bio is where the story gets interesting.
The candidates all have hurdles to overcome. Richard’s is his bio, which doesn’t read like he grew up with a political career in his sights. For starters, there’s FUBIOV – “Forget U Buddy I’m On Vacation” – which he says was the name of a boat he owned decades ago, a name he tried to turn into a brand with “FUBIOV!” t-shirts and www.fubiov.com, a now-defunct travel website. A web video advertising the site features a girl in a bikini walking near a pool, unaware that she’s being filmed.
“If that’s the best thing they think they can come after me with,” Richard says, “then to heck with ’em. I’m trying to stay above board.” He claims to be an innocent bystander. “Somebody put a bikini video out there?” he asks. “I can’t control what’s out there.” But YouTube seems to think otherwise. The video was posted on the site in Jan. 2007 by “fubiov,” who claims to be a 55-year-old named Wayne. The user who posted the same video on dailymotion.com, once again using the “fubiov” moniker, also posted a video parodying Hillary Clinton. That video was produced by ICglobal.net, Richard’s advertising technology firm.
“If you elect someone who has that,” critiques Jackson, “you don’t want that to come to light later and embarrass your city. And that will be an embarrassment to our city.”
Sorry, folks, the video has already been pulled off YouTube and Daily Motion. Holler if you see it somewhere.
UPDATE: Thanks to the resourceful FrontBurnervian that sent along the video. He had downloaded it before its removal.  It is very much as described, and more voyeuristic than expected. I can’t post it here because we don’t have the rights. I could link to it, if it’s found still posted somewhere on the web.
