Crist criticized for “flip-flop” after scrapping visit to Cuba

Posted on Monday, 06.23.14



Crist criticized for "flip-flop" after scrapping visit to Cuba

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate says he needs the time to focus

on principal opponent, Gov. Rick Scott.

BY STEVE BOUSQUET

TIMES/HERALD TALLAHASSEE BUREAU



TALLAHASSEE -- Charlie Crist has scrapped plans to go to Cuba this

summer, citing time demands in his campaign for governor and delays in

getting federal permission to visit the island nation.



"I had to make a decision," Crist said. "We've got to win this thing,

and we can't sap any more of my time or staff's time to the detriment of

victory. … I need to stay focused on Florida."



Crist's about-face was immediately called a "flip-flop" by Gov. Rick

Scott's campaign, and it follows a recent poll that showed his July

plans were not popular with Cuban-American voters in Miami-Dade, the

state's most populous county. Crist said his decision not to visit Cuba

had nothing to do with public opinion in Miami-Dade, where sentiment

about Cuba is more intense than anywhere else in America.



Crist caused a major stir last month when he called for lifting the 1962

U.S. embargo against Cuba, a stance that is gaining popularity with

Florida voters. But he went a bold step further and said he wanted to

see conditions there first-hand.



Crist said he still supports an end to the embargo and said he'll plan a

visit to Cuba next spring if he wins the election.



"We haven't changed our mind. It's just a timing delay," he said.



The poll of 305 Miami-Dade Cuban-American voters by Bendixen & Amandi

International, taken June 3-5, showed that nearly one in four, or 24

percent, would be less likely to vote for Crist if he visited Cuba and 5

percent would be more likely to vote for him. For 67 percent of voters,

it made no difference.



However, among Cubans, 42 percent said they would be less likely to vote

for Crist if he visited Cuba. The sample's margin of error was 4.6

percentage points.



"In my opinion, there was virtually no political upside for him to

travel to Cuba," said Fernand Amandi, managing partner of Bendixen &

Amandi, which has been polling Cuban-American voters for more than 35

years. "Charlie Crist could very well have been alienating Cuban voters

who were otherwise predisposed to vote for him."



The Bendixen & Amandi poll showed Crist is favored by 47 percent of

county voters and Scott by 35 percent, with 18 percent undecided.



Miami-Dade has a large and politically active population of

Cuban-Americans, many of whom fled their homeland after Fidel Castro's

revolution in 1959 and vote Republican. But Miami-Dade has been a

must-win county for Democrats in statewide elections for generations.



"I think it's a smart move. I think it was a loser from the beginning,"

said Dario Moreno, an associate professor of politics at Florida

International University and a political consultant.



Moreno has noted that Crist was the first major statewide candidate in

Florida to support an end to the embargo against Cuba after five

decades. But he said Monday that Crist could have found himself in the

politically perilous position of being photographed shaking hands with

one of the Castro brothers, Fidel and Raúl.



"It would have been very awkward," Moreno said.



As a Republican, Crist backed the embargo, and in his previous campaign

for governor in 2006, he criticized his Democratic opponent, Jim Davis,

for visiting Cuba on a fact-finding visit as a member of Congress.



A poll of 1,000 Cuban-American voters by Florida International

University's Cuban Research Institute, conducted between February and

May of this year, showed 45 percent opposed the embargo and travel

restrictions and 41 percent supported it, with 12 percent undecided. The

poll's margin of error was 3.1 percentage points.



Speaking for Scott's campaign, Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera called

Crist's planned Cuba visit "disgraceful."



"Charlie Crist's vision for Florida's economy is to propose business

ventures with a failed terrorist state," Lopez-Cantera said. "Gov. Scott

and I stand with the Cuban-American community and their desire for the

Cuban people to be free."



Crist said his Cuba trip also was being stymied by the federal

bureaucracy and that it was taking a lot longer than anticipated for the

Treasury Department to process his request for a license to visit the

island.



"It was dragging on and dragging on," Crist said. "We can just as easily

go there next spring."



Times/Herald staff writer Kathleen McGrory contributed to this report.

Contact Steve Bousquet at bousquet@tampabay.com.



Source: TALLAHASSEE: Crist criticized for "flip-flop" after scrapping

visit to Cuba - Political Currents - MiamiHerald.com -

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/06/23/4196276/crist-changes-mind-wont-visit.html