Navy Nomination

Juan Garcia, a former Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives and naval aviator who befriended President Obama when they were classmates at Harvard Law School, has been tapped for a senior job in the Navy. The White House has announced plans to nominate Garcia to be the Navy’s assistant secretary for manpower and Reserve affairs. Last year, Garcia was rumored to be in the running for the Navy secretary job -- one blogger even declared he had been selected.

That turned out to be wrong, of course: The Navy secretary nomination went to Ray Mabus, a Navy veteran and former Mississippi governor who served as ambassador to Saudi Arabia in the 1990s.

Here’s Garcia’s bio, as released by the White House:

Mr. Garcia was a member of the Texas House of Representatives, where he represented the 32nd District from 2006 - 2009. He is currently an attorney with Hartline, Dacus, Barger, Dreyer & Kern, L.L.P in Corpus Christi, TX. Previously, Mr. Garcia was a White House Fellow, serving as a special assistant to Richard Riley, the Secretary of Education. Since 1992 Mr. Garcia has been a Naval Aviator, and is currently the Commanding Officer of Naval Reserve Training Squadron 28. Mr. Garcia earned a B.A. from the University of California in Los Angeles, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and an M.P.P. from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.