Wichitopekington

Jerry Moran

Fidel Castro (AP)

Todd Tiahrt

The Jerry Moran campaign is seeing red over an e-mail from Senate rival Todd Tiahrt’s campaign that implies Moran is a fellow traveler of the Communist Party.

The e-mail subject line asserts — falsely — that Moran has been endorsed by the Communist Party USA.

“The assertion that Jerry Moran would be affiliated with communists is so outlandish, only a desperate campaign like Todd Tiahrt’s would make such an assertion,” said Moran campaign spokesman Aaron Trost. “It’s a desperate public statement by a campaign that’s still trying to find a message.”

Tiahrt spokeswoman Michelle Schroeder said the e-mail was sent to select supporters to remind them of “the good conservatives who support Todd and Todd’s campaign.”

Moran, who represents Kansas’ 1st district in Congress, and Tiahrt, who represents the 4th District, are locked in a bitter struggle for their party’s nomination to run for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sam Brownback, who is running for governor.

Moran led Tiahrt 43 to 27 percent in an October SurveyUSA poll commissioned by KWCH-TV Wichita and KCTV-TV Kansas City.

The e-mail at issue came from the Tiahrt press office Tuesday with the subject line “Moran picks up endorsement from Communist Party USA.”

The body of the e-mail reads, “While our opponent’s legislation to allow travel between the United States and Cuba has picked up the endorsement of the Communist Party USA, we are pleased to remind you of the groups endorsing Todd Tiahrt for the U.S. Senate.”

Then follows a list of well-known conservatives who have endorsed Tiahrt, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former Education Secretary Bill Bennett and activist Phyllis Schlafly.

The Tiahrt e-mail contains a link to a statement by the Communist Party urging people to call their representatives and senators in support of House Resolution 874 and Senate Bill 428, which would lift a ban on U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba.

The statement makes no mention of Moran.

According to the Library of Congress, the House bill has 179 co-sponsors — Moran included — and the Senate version, 33. The bill has bipartisan support ranging from self-described socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, to ultraconservative Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas.

A contact number for the Communist Party in Missouri and Kansas was disconnected and a spokesman for the national party in New York did not return a phone call seeking comment.

As a matter of policy, the Communist Party does not endorse candidates, according to its Web site, www.cpusa.org.

The restriction on private travel to the island country 90 miles south of Florida dates back to an economic embargo begun in 1960 after the Fidel Castro-led communist revolution took power in Cuba.

Moran supports lifting the ban on travel and trade with Cuba in hopes of opening a new market for Kansas agriculture.

In the past, Tiahrt also has been supportive of relaxing sanctions and was quoted in a 2002 Wichita Eagle article saying “I’d like to see Castro’s palace in Havana stacked to the rafters with wheat.”

Trost said the e-mail not only wrongly accuses Moran of communist sympathies, but also exposes a Tiahrt “flip-flop” on the issue.

“He’s been all over the map,” Trost said.

Schroeder said she does not know Tiahrt’s position on engagement with Cuba, but that trade and the travel ban are separate issues.

Washburn University professor Bob Beatty’s initial reaction to the Tiahrt campaign’s e-mail was “Is this real?”

He said at first, he thought it might just have been an inside-the-office joke among Tiahrt staffers.

“It sounds like a joke, it’s so silly,” he said. “It’s obvious that Jerry Moran is not a communist.”

Beatty said it brought to mind a 2004 incident when someone on the Washburn campus posted a doctored picture showing Castro with then-Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

“It touched off kind of a backlash, with people saying that had gone too far,” Beatty recalled.

Beatty, who teaches political science and international affairs, said the irony is that there’s “a lot of evidence to show the Castro regime — which is Fidel and his brother, Raul — is actually propped up by the U.S. sanctions. It allows them to unify (Cubans) against a common enemy.”

Beatty said when he traveled to Cuba on an academic trip — one of the allowed exceptions to the travel ban — “Cubans kept saying to us, it’s your blockade that’s keeping Castro in power.”

He said U.S. engagement with communist countries around the world has led to incremental democratic and economic reform, and the only reason the sanctions against Cuba haven’t already been lifted is because of the importance of the Cuban expatriate population to both the Republican and Democratic parties.

Heavily concentrated in Florida, Cubans who fled the Castro regime represent a key voting bloc in a critical swing state in national elections, he said.

The expatriates oppose normalizing relations with Cuba because it would hurt any potential they have to reclaim property that was seized in the revolution, he said.

He said he hopes the flap over the Tiahrt campaign e-mail could lead to a serious debate between the candidates on U.S.-Cuba relations.