WASHINGTON -- Three North Carolina congressional Democrats changed their views on U.S. relations with Cuba in recent years, just as they began receiving thousands of dollars in donations from the country's largest Cuban-American political action committee.
U.S. Reps. Brad Miller of Raleigh and Mike McIntyre of Lumberton began to vote a harder line as the Cuban-American organization, a staunch opponent of relaxing restrictions on the Communist regime of Fidel and Raul Castro, was increasing its lobbying work in Congress in 2004. At the same time, President George W. Bush began toughening his administration's enforcement of travel restrictions and a trade embargo against the island nation.
Since 2004, McIntyre and Miller have received $14,500 each from the U.S.-Cuba Democracy political action committee, according to a report released today by Public Campaign, a nonpartisan advocacy group based in Washington that pushes for public financing of campaigns.
A third North Carolina Democrat, U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield of Wilson, has received $21,200 from the group since entering Congress in July 2004. His votes started to harden on the Cuba issue beginning in 2005.
Most significantly, Butterfield voted in September 2005 to maintain the trade embargo against Cuba first imposed in 1960. A year earlier, he had voted to end it.
"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. We think these are good people caught in a bad system."
All three lawmakers defended their votes and said money played no role.
Miller and McIntyre said in separate interviews that their changed views are the result of humanitarian concerns about oppression in Cuba, not campaign cash. Each said they had consulted Cuban-American colleagues in Congress who described Cuban leader Fidel Castro's crackdown on dissidents.
"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. "Yes, I changed my vote. That's the reason I changed - the horrors they suffered."
Miller, who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he hadn't thought much about Cuba issues before entering Congress in 2003. Then, he said, he consulted with then-Rep. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, a Democrat and the son of Cuban immigrants who had helped raise money for Miller's campaign. Menendez now is a U.S. senator.
"The only issue on which I have changed positions or cast votes that were not consistent was family travel to Cuba, which I initially supported," Miller said.
Public Campaign labels Miller's record after receiving Cuba PAC donations as "mixed."
All Cuban-Americans want a democratic Cuba, Miller said. Some think it's best gained through contact with open society, others through a strong embargo and travel ban.
"I think it's a close call, actually," Miller said. "And while I think the Castro regime is an oppressive regime, it's by no means the world's most oppressive regime."
Butterfield's record was not mentioned in the Public Campaign report because it was overlooked, Donnelly said. Still, he said Butterfield's votes and PAC donations follow the same pattern seen elsewhere among members who changed their votes.
In a statement, Butterfield said he changed his votes after becoming more educated.
"My position fully galvanized after learning the extent of repression and suffering in Cuba," Butterfield said. He said lifting the sanctions would legitimize what he called an ailing dictatorship.
Across Congress, supporters of the U.S. embargo against Cuba have contributed nearly $11 million to members of Congress since 2004 in a largely successful effort to block efforts to weaken sanctions against the island, the Public Campaign report shows.
"They're really savvy people," Lars Schoultz, a professor of political science at UNC-Chapel Hill and author of "That Infernal Little Cuban Republic: The United States and the Cuban Revolution," said of the political action committee.
"They know one vote is one vote," Schoultz said. "They scratch around and see who might be open to their way of thinking."
The director of the Cuba PAC, Mauricio Claver-Carone, defended the contributions as an expression of free speech for Cuban-Americans who believe easing sanctions against Cuba will only 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," he said.
Although Census estimates show that just 13,000 Cuban-Americans live in North Carolina, the state has some history with the Caribbean nation. Republican U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, an anti-communist crusader, codified the Cuba embargo in 1996 as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The N.C. Farm Bureau has since lobbied to open Cuba further for trade in apples, poultry, pork and dairy products. And Public Campaign pointed out that McIntyre's district is in the top 10 percent in revenues from agriculture, with 4,809 farms in 2007.
But Peter Daniel, the Farm Bureau's No. 2 official, said Cuba trade isn't a top priority right now.
"We're not upset with Miller or McIntyre over the change in their stance," Daniel said. "We just agree to disagree."
Lesley Clark and David Goldstein of McClatchy Newspapers and News & Observer researcher David Raynor contributed to this report.
