Wrangle an elephant, recruit a mariachi band, parade them both around the mouth of the Rio Grande and what have you got? Guaranteed publicity -- including this story.

The story goes like this.

Raj Peter Bhakta, a Pennsylvania Republican challenging Democratic freshman Rep. Allyson Schwartz in the November elections, is campaigning on a platform that includes stricter border controls.

He was visiting the border city of Brownsville, Texas, recently to raise money for his campaign. While he was there, he watched a group of men cross the Rio Grande River underneath one of the bridges connecting Brownsville to Matamoros, Mexico.

It wasn't long before Bhakta had enlisted the band and rented three elephants from circus producer James Plunkett. With the news media in tow convoyed out to the mouth of the river on a remote strip of beach east of town. He mounted up on one elephant. Cameras clicked. Video tape rolled. Notes were taken.

"The elephant never made landfall into Mexico, but I tell you something, he could have made 15 laps back and forth," Bhakta told reporters.

The Border Patrol called the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which "detained" the elephants and sprayed them for ticks before releasing the pachyderms to their owners with the circus.

Bhakta is a first-generation American. His father was born in India and his mother was born in Ireland, according to his official campaign Web site. Until recently he was better known as one of people "fired" by Donald Trump on "The Apprentice."

He said he favors "sensible immigration reform," and goes on to say, "I support additional funding for border enforcement as well as efforts to attract the best and the brightest from around the world."