'Hispanic Obama' Is Set to Take the Big Stage

WALL STREET JOURNAL

By Neil King Jr.

September 3, 2012

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443571904577629764031792588.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

In a presidential campaign already noted for partisan acrimony, San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro might seem an odd choice to deliver the Democratic Party's signature address Tuesday night in Charlotte, N.C.

The Obama campaign is putting forward the 37-year-old second-term mayor, who has never run in a partisan election and has built bridges to his hometown Republicans.

Mr. Castro's plum speaking slot is testament to two realities: the centrality of the Hispanic vote for President Barack Obama's re-election chances; and Mr. Castro's own status as a rising star within the party.

When Mr. Castro takes the stage, introduced by his identical twin, Joaquin, who is running for the congressional seat that represents San Antonio, he will be the first Hispanic to deliver a convention keynote speech.

Mr. Castro says he plans to use his own family story—the son of a single mother, he went on to attend Stanford University and Harvard Law School—"to summon the common ground we all share as Americans."

The last time a Texan gave the Democratic keynote address was in 1988, when then-state treasurer Ann Richards memorably jabbed George H.W. Bush for being born "with a silver foot in his mouth." No one predicts similar tartness from Mr. Castro.

"Expect a serious speech laced with lessons from his upbringing," said Jose Villarreal, a fixture in San Antonio Democratic circles and a friend of Mr. Castro's. "Frivolity is just not in Julián's nature."

Mr. Castro's address follows major speeches last week at the Republican National Convention by the GOP's rising Hispanic stars, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez.

Mr. Castro's sudden prominence has drawn comparisons to Mr. Obama's debut at the 2004 Democratic Convention, with some going so far as to call the mayor "the Hispanic Obama."

It's a description Mr. Castro rejects. "I'm flattered but I don't put myself in his shoes," he said.

Mr. Castro grew up on San Antonio's largely Latino West Side, schooled in the city's politics by his mother, Rosie, a well-known leader of the Texas civil-rights group La Raza Unida. She stoked both brothers' ambitions as she dragged them to political events across the city.

Notable facts: Worked as White House intern in 1994. Began planning his first city council campaign while still in law school at Harvard. A son of Rosie Castro, a leader of the Mexican-American civil rights movement in Texas. Twin brother, Joaquin, a member of the state House in Texas, is running for a congressional seat.

Lionel Sosa, a San Antonian who has worked on Republican presidential campaigns going back to Ronald Reagan, remembered his astonishment when he first met the brothers, fresh out of Stanford. "They came to my house to seek my counsel, and both of them said in unison, 'We want to be mayor,'" Mr. Sosa recalled. "I said, 'Which of you does?" And one of them, I don't recall which, said, 'Whichever it is, one of us will be mayor.'"

The country's seventh-largest city assigns little real power to the mayor—San Antonio is essentially run by a professional city manager—but the office has spawned its share of power brokers, including Henry Cisneros, the former San Antonio mayor who later served as secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Clinton administration.

Mr. Castro has used the perch to push for causes ranging from a new streetcar system to an initiative on the ballot this November for a sales-tax increase to pay for a new pre-K program.

He gets generally high marks for his low-key ability to build coalitions with the city's business leaders and other interests.

"You think of politicians like Bill Clinton or Lyndon Johnson, and that's just not Julian Castro," said Reed Williams, a Republican city councilman and former energy executive.

"He is a very quiet, very measured, very gentlemanly guy." That said, Mr. Williams is critical of some of the mayor's policies, such as the pre-K tax proposal.

Mr. Castro describes himself as "practical and not ideological, a proud Democrat who relishes the chance to work with folks on the other side."

Mr. Castro's own political future may well hinge on the growth of the same Hispanic electorate he will try to motivate Tuesday night. He insists he has no interest in serving in any future Democratic administration. So his only path to higher office would be to win a statewide election in Texas—a feat that probably would require the country's largest reliably red state to change partisan hue.

With the growth of the state's Hispanic population, Mr. Castro predicts Texas could begin to tilt Democratic by the end of the decade. That's right around when he hopes to wrap up the maximum eight years in office—"at which point, I will start looking around to see what there is to do next," he said.