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Castrogate Rocks San Antonio.

Julián Castro wants to be mayor of San Antonio, Texas. He wants it so much, he sent his twin brother to impersonate him on a campaign float.

Or, so says Castro's opposition.

The story:

He walked like him. He waved like him. He even had the same haircut, and for the voters of the Texas town of San Antonio, the man standing in front of them looked like the mayoral candidate Julian Castro. There was only one problem. It wasn't him.

Mr Castro admitted yesterday that the man who had stood in his place on Monday night waving from the city council barge as part of the annual river parade had been his identical twin, Joaquin.

Phil Hardberger, opponent of Castro, called the action dishonest and deceptive.

Julián and Joaquin are both graduates of Stanford University and Harvard Law. Julián currently serves on the San Antonio City Council, while Joaquin is a member of the Texas House of Representatives.

The brothers adroitly made light of the situation, turning the debacle into an avalanche of positive publicity:

It is unlikely the mix-up will have any affect on Julián Castro's front-runner status. In every poll conducting in San Antonio this year, Castro has been far ahead of his competitors:

With Texas' changing demographics, the Castro brothers could be a dynamic political force in the coming years, breaking the Democrats' lengthy dryspell, much like the Salazar brothers did in 2004 in otherwise Republican-leaning Colorado. Allegations of duplicity could come back to haunt the young Castro brothers, but more likely this event will simply go down as a humorous off-beat story in the annals of Texas politics.

Posted by Will Franklin · 25 April 2005 11:19 AM

Comments

Posted by: Marge at April 25, 2005 04:29 PM

Posted by: Zsa Zsa at April 25, 2005 05:08 PM

Posted by: linda at April 26, 2005 09:21 PM