Anthony Garotinho

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Anthony William "Garotinho" Matheus de Oliveira (born in Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro, 1960) is a Brazilian politician. He started as a radio presenter and later joined the Democratic Labour Party (PDT). He was elected Governor of Rio de Janeiro State from 1999 to 2002. He moved to the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) due to problems with the PDT leader, Leonel Brizola, and was the party's presidential candidate at the 2002 presidential elections. He reached 18 % of the votes and backed Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for the second round.

He then left the PSB to join the historical Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (PDMB). He is often seen as a populist and, nowadays, more as a liberal than as a socialist. He is also one of the best known Brazilian evangelical politicians.

On May 1, 2006 Garotinho announced a hunger strike in protest of what he called unjust treatment by the Brazilian media, after unanswered accusations of illegal campaign funding. Not fulfilling his promise, he later stopped his hunger strike and still has not answered his accusations. The whole hunger strike was, actually, another bad marketing move.

Because of this, his attempt to be a presidential candidate was rejected by his own party. He's now isolated, and as the electoral law in Brazil does not allow him to change parties in the middle of the ellection, has no chance of being a candidate for anything this year (2006).