Patrick Murphy
breaks barrier on U.S.-Cuban relations in Rubio challenge
Thursday, October 13, 2016
6:00am
TALLAHASSEE — For the first
time in Florida's modern political history, Patrick Murphy is proposing
something that no major party nominee for the U.S. Senate has dared to say. End
the embargo with Cuba and replace it with more targeted sanctions.
For the last 54 years, the
one automatic for any Republican or Democrat seeking to win a U.S. Senate seat
in Florida was to assure voters they would back the embargo with Cuba until it
forced the communist dictatorship out of power.
From when the embargo started
in 1960 through 2012, every single party nominee for the U.S. Senate — both
Democratic and Republican — opposed weakening the embargo.
And for good reason. Almost 1
million Cuban-Americans live in Miami-Dade — the state's most populous county —
and as a bloc they can end any candidate's political ambitions.
Florida's senior senator,
Bill Nelson, a Democrat, has not called for ending the embargo. But he has been
firm in calling for changes of U.S. policy toward Cuba to "get into the
21st century" and has supported President Barack Obama's steps to
normalize relations.
Enter Murphy, a Miami native,
who backs Obama's efforts to engage more with Cuba.
Suddenly, Florida voters are
in a position to have both U.S. Senators who support a more open diplomatic
approach to Cuba.
"It's monumental,"
said Hector Perla, senior research fellow at the Council on Hemispheric
Affairs.
Perla said if Florida — 90
miles from Cuba — suddenly has both senators supportive of warmer relations
with Cuba, it changes the entire debate in Washington.
Murphy's position is even
more startling given he faces U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio in November. Rubio's world
view is shaped by his Cuban roots. He's positioned himself as the Obama
administration's toughest critic on Cuba. He has been unwavering in his support
of the embargo and has opposed scaling back restrictions on travel and trade
with Cuba. In fact while running for president, Rubio, the son of Cuban
immigrants who has lived most of his life in Miami, told The Guardian he
"absolutely" would have reversed Obama's policies toward Cuba.
"The President's decision
to reward the Castro regime and begin the path toward the normalization of
relations with Cuba is inexplicable," Rubio said in 2014. Rubio pledged to
use his position as a subcommittee chairman to block the administration's
"dangerous" policies toward Cuba.
Since then Rubio has
castigated the administration every time it has taken action on Cuba, whether
it was lifting some commercial and travel sanctions, removing Cuba from a list
of state sponsors of terrorism, or when Obama visited Havana.
Rubio said he wants change in
the U.S. policy, but only if the Cuban government also offers change. Obama's
efforts have all been one sided with no concessions from Cuba, he says.
Democrats like Murphy,
particularly in Florida, have followed Obama's lead in calling for a change in
the decades old adherence to the embargo. Already there is a growing contingent
of Republicans around the nation that also has been pushing to end the embargo.
Polls shows why.
Nearly 70 percent of
Cuban-Americans in Miami-Dade County support the U.S. decision to open
diplomatic relations with Cuba and a strong majority — 63 percent — oppose the
embargo, according to a Florida International University poll released last
month.
The poll reveals a major
shift in Cuban-American attitudes toward U.S.-Cuba relations. Support for the
embargo has steadily declined among Cuban-Americans in the Miami area — from an
average of 84 percent in the 1990s to just 37 percent this year.
"The majority support at
least some elements of the new course now being charted,'' said FIU professor
Guillermo J. Grenier.
While older Cubans mostly
support the embargo, younger Cubans in Miami have been increasingly open to
resuming relations. Their reasoning is that as U.S. influence floods the island
nation, the dictatorship will crumble faster.
Still those poll numbers have
never been tested in an election for the Senate which has the power to change
the law. When Nelson last ran for re-election in 2012, it was before Obama's
moved to normalize relations. Nelson has been cautious in his statements about
Cuba, but signaled the need for a change of approach.
It's a different era now,
said former U.S. Rep. Jim Davis, a Tampa Democrat. In 2003, Davis, then a 3rd
term congressman, visited Cuba on a fact finding mission, becoming the first
U.S. Congressman from Florida to visit the island openly. Three years later,
that visit resonated in Miami, haunting his gubernatorial run.
"People didn't really
know me there, but what they knew was that I had gone to Cuba," Davis
said. "It was a shut door. I still won Hispanic votes in Miami but it
definitely hurt me with Cubans."
Davis, a Murphy supporter,
said this year's Florida senate race could be historic.
"If you had two U.S.
Senators from Florida ready to move past the embargo, that is a powerful change
in the debate in Washington," Davis said.
Patrick Murphy breaks barrier
on U.S.-Cuban relations in Rubio challenge 10/13/16 [Last modified: Wednesday,
October 12, 2016 7:16pm]
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/patrick-murphy-breaks-barrier-on-us-cuban-relations-in-rubio-challenge/2297797
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