Thread: Money affects Cuba policy

Money affects Cuba policy
BY LESLEY CLARK
lclark@MiamiHerald.com

Supporters of the U.S. embargo against Cuba have contributed almost $11 million to members of Congress since 2004 in a largely successful effort to block efforts to weaken sanctions against the island, a new report shows.
In several cases, according to the report by the nonpartisan group Public Campaign, members of Congress who had supported easing sanctions against Cuba changed their positions -- and then got donations from the U.S.-Cuba Democracy Political Action Committee and its donors.

All told, the political action committee that champions the embargo and its contributors have given $10.77 million nationwide to almost 400 candidates and members of Congress, the report says.

The contributions include more than $850,000 to 53 House Democrats who earlier this month sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opposing any change to U.S.-Cuba policy. The average signer, the report says, received $16,344.

The top five recipients of the cash: Miami's three Cuban-American Republican members of Congress; 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain; and New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat, whose parents fled Cuba before his birth.

The report comes as defenders of the embargo fend off efforts to repeal the decades-old ban against U.S. travel to Cuba. Proponents of greater engagement with Cuba contend they have the votes for a change.

A hearing on the issue is set for Thursday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

MONEY AND POLICY

Critics of U.S.-Cuba policy have long suggested a link between campaign contributions and policy. Public Campaign -- which advocates for public financing of political campaigns -- says the contributions raise questions about the role money plays in lawmakers' decision-making on Cuba issues.

``The pressure they get to raise money plays heavier in their decisions than it ought to,'' said David Donnelly, national campaigns director for Public Campaign. ``We think this is a damning pattern. . . . If members of Congress have to spend too much time raising money, they have to listen to people who give money.''

The director of the U.S.-Cuba PAC, Mauricio Claver-Carone, said they support lawmakers who side with Cuban-Americans who believe easing sanctions would benefit the Castro regime.

``I will not apologize for the Cuban-American community practicing its constitutional, democratic right to support candidates who believe in freedom and democracy for the Cuban people over business and tourism interests,'' Claver-Carone said.

``Unions help elect pro-union candidates,'' he said. ``The chamber of commerce helps elect pro-business candidates. AIPAC [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee] helps elect pro-Israel members. Who are we supposed to help? Pro-Castro members?''

Public Campaign looked at the Cuba political action committee because Congress has continued to uphold the travel ban even though public opinion polls suggest most Americans believe it should be lifted.

PUBLIC'S OPINION

Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who backs greater engagement with Cuba, said the report isn't a surprise.

``I don't know how else you can explain how our current policy has survived for so long without yielding any meaningful results -- it's all politics,'' Flake said.

The report says at least 18 House members received campaign contributions from the PAC or its donors and then switched to opposing efforts to soften the embargo.

`NOT HUMANITARIAN'

U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C., said his changed views came not from campaign contributions but from humanitarian interests and concerns about oppression in Cuba. He said he spoke with Miami Republican Reps. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart about their family's experience in Cuba under Fidel Castro.

``I thought, `This is not right, and it's not humanitarian, and it doesn't promote democracy and I'm not going to support someone who is repressive and evil,' '' McIntyre said.

Claver-Carone said he started the PAC in 2003 to help win back clout the Cuban-American community had when the late Jorge Mas Canosa ran the Cuban American National Foundation.

``The farm lobby came in and they were telling people, `Cuba is like Costa Rica,' '' Claver-Carone said. ``We came in and started telling people, `Hey, here's what's really happening in Cuba.' ''

Weston Democrat Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who has received $75,700 from the PAC and donors, noted that ``just last week, the leading blogger in Cuba, critical of the government, was abducted and severely beaten.

``A relationship with the United States needs to be earned, not given away, and that was my feeling and has been reflected in my voting record long before I ever received any political support from people who share my views,'' she said.

A spokesman for Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, who ranks eighth on the list of top recipients, said Meek's position on Cuba was ``informed by a lifetime of living alongside an exile community who experienced dictatorship rule firsthand.''

The report shows the PAC shifting contributions to Democrats as they assumed control of the House and Senate in 2006. In the 2004 election cycle, the PAC gave just 29 percent to Democrats; by 2008, the Democrats' share was 59 percent.


Barbara Barrett and David Goldstein of McClatchy's Washington bureau contributed to this report.

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