Not that this was a surprise, but now it’s official.
Under picture-perfect skies and surrounded by his family and young people he called the future of San Antonio, Mayor Julián Castro formally launched his re-election bid Sunday.
He chose Café College — an effort he launched to help high school students obtain financial aid information and advice to maximize college attendance opportunities — to highlight one of a pair of priorities he has laid out for a second two-year term. His other priority — illustrated in his ambitious blueprint of SA2020, a vision of where the city will be in a decade — is “to completely reorient the city’s economic development model.”
But Castro also presented, in broad brush strokes, his view of the city’s “sense of humility and belief in the future, that sense of community pride and culture that will propel us forward so that our vision and plan is realized.”
Although the campaign season is just starting, there is no indication that Castro will have major opposition as he seeks his second term.
Expect him to cruise easily, with 80-90% of the vote, depending on how many fringe candidates jump in. I don’t know how many such characters exist in San Antonio. While I believe Mayor Castro could pivot from this election to a 2012 Senate campaign if he wanted to, I don’t believe that’s at all likely. But I am sure he’s planning to go places eventually.