Cuba Travel Issues and the Mid-term Elections
October 5, 2006

Between now and election day, candidates for every seat in the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate are seeking electoral support. They will participate in public forums, debates, fund raisers, living room meetings, door knocks, etc. Incumbents, as well as challengers hoping to unseat them, are more accessible and more prepared to listen and respond at this moment than at any other time in the political cycle. They, and their staff, will take note of the issues that really matter to voters.

Please use one or more of these opportunities to ask publicly and on the record two questions about travel to Cuba. See below.

You will join a nationwide non-partisan survey to document the views of all candidates on the issue of travel. An hour or two of work in your own community can reap significant results in raising local awareness.

Two Questions for Every Candidate

In order to enable consistent national tabulation of responses, we ask that you employ more or less the following format in asking your questions:

[Optional preface: According to a recent CNN poll, 62% of Americans believe that the United States should normalize relations with Cuba now; and 69% believe that should take place if Raul Castro replaces his brother as head of the government.]

Please tell us your position on two questions about travel to Cuba.

1) Should Cuban Americans be able to make visits
a) whenever they wish?
b) at least once a year and for medical emergencies to see members of their extended family, the policy under President Clinton and in the first term of President Bush?
c) the current policy: once every three years to see only parents, grandparents, children and grandchildren, with no provision for emergencies?

2) Should all Americans be free to travel to Cuba
a) whenever they wish?
b) for visits sponsored by not-for-profit humanitarian, educational, professional, alumni, people-to-people, sister city, cultural, sports and religious organizations, the policy of the Clinton Administration?
c) the current policy: almost never (with a very small number of licensed exceptions)?

IMPORTANT; Please send all answers the next day to us. Click here to e-mail us.

It is ideal to tape and transcribe answers, but good notes are sufficient.

You may not be given the opportunity to ask two questions, so decide which is of greater importance to you. If two people can attend a campaign event, each should be prepared to ask one of the questions. Alternatively, the same person can go to two events in order to ask both questions.

Some candidates will want to avoid choosing one of the options offered and try to answer in terms of generalities or contingencies. Be prepared to follow-up and insist on specific answers to these real life choices.

If you don't know how incumbents voted on Cuba issues, click here.

This is a grassroots project that one or two people can do on their own, either a single time or at several campaign events. (See below for additional suggestions for local organizations and informal groups.) A web site is in preparation so all registered participants can keep track of progress nationwide. We’ll let you know when it is ready.

If you can join us in your community, have any questions, or want to work on the national program, please click here to send us an email or call the LAWG at 202-546-7010.

And please forward our message today or tomorrow to anyone who might like to be part of such a significant project.

Sincerely,

Mavis Anderson, Claire Rodriguez, Latin America Working Group
Kirby Jones, Alamar Associates
Wayne Smith, Center for International Policy
Alvaro Fernandez, Cuban American Commission for Family Rights, Miami
Ruben Rumbaut, ENCASA/US-CUBA
Sarah Stephens, Freedom to Travel Campaign, Cuba Central
John McAuliff, Fund for Reconciliation and Development
Kirsten Moller, Global Exchange
Silvia Wilhelm, Puentes Cubanos, Miami
Andrea Holbrook, Travel Industry Committee on Cuba
Lisa Valanti, U.S.-Cuba Sister Cities Association
Geoff Thale, Elsa Falkenburger, Washington Office on Latin America
Cynthia Thomas, TriDimension Strategies
Delvis Fernandez Levy, Cuban American Alliance Education Fund
Ricardo Gonzalez, Madison-Camaguey Sister City Association
Arthur Heitzer, Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba, and
National Lawyers Guild, Cuba Subcommittee
Laura Carlsen, International Relations Center (IRC) Americas Program
Louis Head, Cuba Research and Analysis Group
Melinda St. Louis, Witness for Peace
Gary Cozette, Marilyn McKenna, Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America
Merri Ansara, Common Ground
Tom Miller, General Counsel, Global Exchange
Sandra Levinson, Center for Cuban Studies
Jorge Ignacio Fernandez, Hope for Cuba Foundation

(List in formation)

Additional Suggestions

If an established organization or an ad hoc group of friends want to take on the survey project, following are several ways to maximize impact. Just be conscious you need to get moving immediately. (Election day is November 7th, one month from now, and candidates will focus the last week more on the mechanics of getting out the vote than on issues.)

1) Persistently request in writing and in person of the central campaign office (or incumbents' district or state office) the candidate's position on the two questions. If you get an answer, publicize it with a press release, a letter to the editor and/or a handout for distribution at election events (preferably comparing the position of all candidates).

2) Monitor campaign web sites and newspapers to create a schedule of appearances of candidates (including fund raising events). Insure that one or both of the Cuba questions get raised on as many occasions as possible, preferably by a changing cast of constituents. Even though the candidate may have answered the same questions on previous occasions, repetition by different people in a variety of venues conveys a sense of widespread grass roots interest.

3) If candidates modify their position as questions are repeated, please bring that quickly to the attention. Click here to e-mail us.

4) Contact local newspaper, radio and TV political reporters to inform them of whatever answers or evasions you receive to the questions. Reporters often are panelists at debates and conduct their own interviews with candidates. If they feel the Cuba issue is generating local interest, they may ask their own related questions to candidates.

5) Contact local civic groups (e.g. League of Women Voters, Chamber of Commerce) who are involved with the election to explain why the Cuba questions are being raised.

Ask if they have a web site on which the candidates' answers can be posted to an already established audience

6) Investigate whether any candidates have received funds from the pro-embargo U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC. That can be checked easily on the Open Secrets website.
Click here for 2004 contributions
Click here for 2006 contributions

For the current campaign, the PAC total given to Democratic House Candidates so far is: $160,000. Total to Republican House Candidates: $191,924. Total to Democratic Senate Candidates: $29,000. Total to Republican Senate Candidates: $52,000.

It may be appropriate through an additional question, press release, or letter to the editor to inquire whether the candidate is more responsive to constituents or outside donors. The donors are overwhelmingly from Florida and can be found online.

7) This survey project can be readily carried out in coalition with others if relationships exist or can be created quickly enough. For example, Cuban Americans and humanitarian groups should raise question one; universities, museums, people-to- people, sister cities and other prospective travelers or travel agents question two. Farmers, business executives or foreign policy specialists may want to develop questions that address the broader normalization and embargo issue. Delegations representing many of these sectors can request personal meetings with all candidates.

Please keep us up to date on your experience and on successful modifications or innovations that should be shared! Click here to contact us.

Good luck!