President Bush is losing support among the crucial Cuban-American constituency in Florida and new U.S. travel curbs to the island are stirring some division, a poll released on Friday showed.
Sixty-six percent of respondents said they would support Bush if the election was held today, down from 82 percent who voted for him in 2000, according to the poll of 800 Cuban-Americans, commissioned by the William C. Velasquez Institute.
Bush won Florida in 2000 by just 537 votes after a recount battle, and the Cuban-American community has traditionally been a reliable Republican bastion.
Cuban-Americans were also reluctant to back Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. Only 16 percent said they would vote for him if the election was held today, according to the poll of Cuban-Americans who are U.S. citizens and therefore eligible to vote. It had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.
The numbers have “nothing for Democrats to be happy about,” Luis Miranda, a partner with Mirram Global, the polling firm that conducted the survey, said in a news conference.
“However, the issue is that if you look at the last several elections, in fact you’ll expect Cubans to be in the high 70s and up for the Republican candidate,” he added.
The poll conducted from June 29 to July 7 was the first since Bush implemented tough new measures limiting family visits to the island. Two out of every three Cuban-Americans were aware of the restrictions, Miranda said.
Cuban-Americans are now allowed to visit immediate family on the island once every three years, instead of annually, and their stay is capped at two weeks, among other restrictions some Cuban-American groups have decried as an attack on family values.
The White House says the measures are needed to hasten the demise of the communist government of President Fidel Castro.
When asked if Cuban-Americans should in general be able to visit relatives in Cuba without restrictions, 38 percent strongly agreed and 36 percent strongly disagreed.
But 50 percent strongly approved the new travel restrictions, against 30 percent who were strongly opposed.
