Taking his PAC money

Republicans burn Curbelo after taking his PAC money

By MARC CAPUTO

Congressman Carlos Curbelo touted his “What a Country!” political action committee as a way to support like-minded Republicans on immigration, dishing out $152,600 to 61 House Republicans over the past three years.

But when Curbelo most needed their support, most of those Republicans deserted him.

Curbelo needed just 25 Republicans to support his push for a “discharge petition,” a parliamentary move designed to bypass House leadership and bring the issue of immigration reform to the House floor. But only 20 of the 61 Republicans he contributed to signed on, leaving the effort two votes short of the necessary threshold.

Worse, 13 Republicans who received money from “What a Country!” both refused to sign the discharge petition and also voted against the compromise legislation this week — denying the Miami Republican on his signature issue, immigration reform.

That failure is now haunting him on the campaign trail in Florida’s 26th congressional district, the nation’s most Democratic-leaning seat held by a Republican running for reelection.

Curbelo said there’s only so much he could expect in return for the contributions.

“There is no quid pro quo when people receive contributions from a political action committee,” Curbelo told POLITICO when asked if he felt burned by the 41 Republicans who received “What a Country!” money but didn’t sign the discharge petition.

“I’m very grateful to all of the members who have received support from the PAC and acted to advance a balanced solution that would have solved many of the challenges with our immigration system,” Curbelo said.

To approve the discharge petition, 25 House Republicans had to join all 193 Democrats to get to a majority and bypass leadership. But with only 23 Republicans, including Curbelo, the measure looked stalled.

That’s when Curbelo and other Republican immigration moderates, led by California Rep. Jeff Denham, decided on a different course that essentially killed the petition. In changing directions, the moderates all but ensured Democrats were cut out of the process and wouldn’t vote for the final product. That happened, twice, on consecutive weeks, culminating with the Wednesday defeat of an internal Republican “compromise” bill.

The measure that failed Wednesday set aside $25 billion to build President Donald Trump’s border wall, eliminated some family-based immigration visas and also gave a pathway to citizenship for almost 2 million “Dreamers,” undocumented immigrants brought to this country as kids. Democrats opposed the wall and the visa restrictions and wanted more legalization for more undocumented immigrants.

Now, what Curbelo describes as a pragmatic decision to get something rather than nothing, his Democratic opponent calls a lack of principles.

“He’s caving,” said Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, echoing criticisms from immigrants-rights groups like America’s Voice. “For someone who talks about bipartisanship, to have zero Democrats involved in writing an immigration bill that is going to come to the floor for a vote shows you that he caves to his party, that he is not fighting for Dreamers, that he’s letting down his community.”

Mucarsel-Powell said Curbelo “waited a few months before the election” and that it was too late. If she had been in office, she said, she would have signed on to a “clean DREAM Act.”

Curbelo pushed back on that notion and pointed out that Trump said he wouldn’t have signed the legislation but indicated he would have signed the legislation that died Wednesday.

“Until the last hour, we were asking colleagues to sign the discharge petition. The only thing we could not do is force members to go to the floor and sign the petition,” Curbelo said. “Once it was clear to us that our colleagues were not willing to proceed, we did the best we could to produce a bill that guaranteed a future in our country for Dreamers, secured the border and reformed other parts of our immigration system.”

Mucarsel-Powell also took issue with Curbelo’s PAC.

“I would have never given campaign donations to anti-immigrant Republicans, which he’s done from his PAC,” she said. “He says one thing and does another. That’s who Curbelo is.”

Among those who received contributions were New York’s Lee Zeldin, who has repeatedly said he opposes “amnesty.” Curbelo’s fellow Floridian, Rep. Vern Buchanan, also voted against the Wednesday legislation after refusing to sign on to the discharge petition.

Curbelo said that “What a Country!” wasn’t solely dedicated to immigration reform, however. He said he uses the political committee to support fellow Republicans who share his views on the environment, gun control and taxes.

But when Curbelo first announced the committee in January to his hometown paper, immigration sounded like its focus.

"What a Country recognizes that the United States is the land of opportunity, where anyone who comes here and works hard and plays by the rules can get ahead," Curbelo told the Miami Herald. "It will support candidates who understand the importance of overhauling our nation's immigration laws to secure our borders, promote legal immigration and reward those who contribute to our economy."

About 18 months later, when the paper noticed Curbelo was giving to politicians who voted against protecting Dreamers, Curbelo expressed confidence his Republican colleagues would be there for him: “When the time comes they will be poised to help us on the immigration issue … I could have just established a generic leadership PAC but I decided voluntarily — I didn’t have to do this — to employ this resource to advance a policy agenda that is important to me.”

Curbelo said he’s not done trying to get an immigration bill passed. And he said that Democrats have themselves to blame for the failure of this legislation because a majority of House Republicans supported it and Democrats didn’t do enough.

“It’s clear for many Democrats that the politics of immigration are far more important than the solutions for immigration,” he said, noting how Democrats failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform when they controlled all three branches of government after President Barack Obama’s election in 2008.

“They doubled down on that position by voting unanimously with a minority of Republicans to defeat legislation that would have guaranteed a future in America -- a pathway to citizenship – for 2 million undocumented young immigrants who were brought to this country as children,” he said.