The dispute comes as the November race for the city’s mayoral seat heats up
. While Montano hopes to take over current Mayor Rich Tran’s seat, Phan has not officially announced his candidacy for the position. However, his official Instagram page’s bio reads “Campaign announcement coming soon.” Tran,and is considered an ally to Montano when it comes to board votes, has endorsed her in the mayoral race.
When asked to comment on the situation, Phan wrote in a text, “It’s laughable that a mayoral candidate running to represent Silicon Valley has no clue how domain names work. It’s unfortunate that she was not digitally competent enough to register a domain name; it is relatively inexpensive and a simple process.”When pressed whether he was the one responsible for the alleged misconduct, Phan replied, “no comment” and also declined to say whether he was running for mayor.