Former Texas Comptroller John Sharp appears to have pulled the plug on his potential bid for U.S. Senate, emptying his campaign account and taking his campaign website offline.

Sharp, a popular Democrat whose name is always brought up as a possible contender for statewide office, had set his sites on Kay Bailey Hutchison’s U.S. Senate seat, which would have opened up if Hutchison had defeated Rick Perry in the GOP gubernatorial primary in March. However, Perry won, and for now Hutchison is holding on to her spot, which is up for election next in 2012.

A call to Sharp’s office was not returned immediately. Sharp is principal of the Austin branch of Ryan tax firm.

In the last three months since the primary, Sharp has refunded himself more than $3.07 million he loaned to his campaign. He also gave back $152,000 to individual donors, leaving his campaign account with less than $5,300 in cash and about $44,000 in debt, according to Federal Elections Commission reports.

Sharp’s campaign website, www.johnsharp.com, now points to a generic webhosting page, and the contact numbers for his campaign are no longer in service. Sharp’s campaign brought in about $868,000 in donations overall.

The campaign’s Facebook and Twitter pages are still online, but have not been updated since March 10.

(Photo: John Sharp for U.S. Senate/Facebook)