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Bauer's Cuba deal
draws fire
Posted on Sun, Mar. 21,
2004 in The
State.com, SC.
Mike Campbell, son of former Republican
Gov. Carroll Campbell, is turning up the
heat on Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, a fellow Republican.
At issue is Bauer's recent trade mission
to Cuba. There, Bauer and others signed
an agreement with Fidel Castro's regime
for the export of $10 million of S.C. agriculture
products.
Campbell, a potential challenger for Bauer's
job in 2006, opposed the deal, saying so
in a newspaper column.
Now, Campbell has taken his opposition
to a new level. He has hired a highly respected
Republican pollster to tap the sentiment
of South Carolinians on the issue. What
he found was that a plurality of voters
- 47 percent - disapprove of the $10 million
agreement; only 29 percent support the deal.
That opposition crossed over political,
racial and gender boundaries. A plurality
of Republicans, Democrats and independents;
whites and blacks; men and women opposed
the deal, according to the survey conducted
by McLaughlin and Associates. The poll of
400 likely voters was taken Feb. 25-29.
It had a margin of error of plus or minus
4.9 percentage points.
Even farm households, who would benefit
the most from the agreement, were split
down the middle - 33 percent supporting
the deal and 33 percent opposing.
"It is clear from these numbers that
this deal was a mistake for Lt. Gov. Andre
Bauer," said John McLaughlin, president
of the polling firm.
Campbell paid for the statewide survey.
Such surveys cost roughly $10,000 on average.
Bauer was accompanied on the January trip
by state Commissioner of Agriculture Charles
Sharpe and state Rep. Chip Limehouse, R-Charleston.
The mission had the blessing of Gov. Mark
Sanford, another Republican.
Campbell said he knows a lot of people
will say the poll that he commissioned is
politically motivated, that he's posturing
to run against Bauer for lieutenant governor.
"I have made no decision to run,"
Campbell said. "But whether I do or
don't, I still would have done this because
I felt so strongly about it. Someone needed
to stand up and raise the awareness about
this deal so we can stop it before it ever
goes anywhere. ... We don't need to lower
ourselves to deal with some communist dictator."
Bauer accused Campbell of trying to turn
the issue into a "political football."
"I think he would have a hard time
explaining to the farmers why we shouldn't
be selling South Carolina goods to Cuba,"
he said.
Bauer said he was "not going to try
to guess" who he'd be running against
in two years.
But, of Campbell's poll, he said, "I'm
sure he has good intentions. What they are
I have no idea."
He then added, "I don't do polls to
be a leader."
The McLaughlin survey found a majority
of voters are opposed to South Carolina
doing business with a communist dictator
like Castro, regardless of the economic
benefits.
Castro is known to enter into trade agreements
to put pressure on the United States to
end its embargo of Cuba.
In return for the trade deal, Bauer and
Sharpe agreed to urge the state's congressional
delegation to support lifting the trade
embargo against the island nation of 11
million people.
Three years ago, the United States loosened
its 42-year-old embargo on trading with
Cuba, allowing the shipment of food, agricultural
goods and medicine.
At least 34 states now export to Cuba,
according to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic
Council, a nonprofit group that provides
research for U.S. businesses wanting to
trade with Cuba.
But the Bush administration opposes lifting
completely the embargo of the communist
nation.
Campbell says he will press on with his
fight until the S.C.-Cuba deal is shelved.
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