Presidential candidates largely agree on Florida issues (all support embargo on Cuba)

WEST PALM BEACH — It's easy for Florida voters to find out where the Republican presidential candidates stand on issues important to the state.

Whether it's the Everglades, offshore drilling, Cuba or the creation of a national catastrophe fund, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee have all staked out positions.

But the state's Democrats are having a much harder time. New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former U.S. Sen. John Edwards are all boycotting the state because it moved its primary up to Jan. 29 in violation of national party rules. Not only are they not campaigning here, they are loath to answer most questions about the state.

Clinton and Obama both support the creation of a catastrophe insurance fund to help states deal with the aftermath of a disaster. Clinton, Obama and Edwards oppose offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, something Florida politicians have historically been against because of fears it will cause spills and pollution.

Climate change is also an issue important to Florida voters, given that the state is surrounded by water and highly vulnerable to rising sea levels.

The three candidates all support, in some way, funding for alternative energy research and production, tougher fuel efficiency standards and greenhouse gas reductions.

One major difference between the three top Democrats is their positions on U.S.-Cuba relations. The Cuban-exile vote is considered key to winning Florida. Top presidential candidates have generally followed the recommendations of the community's most hard-line leaders, who support a full embargo against Fidel Castro's government.

But many in the large Cuban-American community here want to be able to visit and help family and support the idea of looser restrictions.

Clinton and Edwards both support maintaining the current restrictions on trade, but Edwards wants to loosen restrictions on family travel to and from the communist island nation.

Obama wants to do the same, but also supports lifting restrictions on how much money family members in the U.S. can send home to their Cuban relatives.

"It can help make their families less dependent on Fidel Castro. That's the way to bring about real change in Cuba," Obama told a crowd in Miami last year.

On immigration, all three support tougher border security and some sort of conditional path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

On the Republican side, Giuliani, Huckabee and Romney all have either said they support or would consider supporting the creation of national catastrophe insurance.

McCain said a few weeks ago in response to e-mailed questions from The Associated Press that he "would consider a national catastrophe fund" as part of improvements to the nation's disaster response. However, traveling in Florida on Monday, McCain said: "I do not support a national catastrophic insurance policy. That insurance policy is there, and it's called FEMA, and it's called disaster preparedness and it's called addressing disasters."

The Republican candidates have all hedged in their positions on oil drilling off Florida's coast.

Giuliani says everything must be considered if the U.S. wants to break its dependence on foreign oil, but he supports the current 125-mile buffer zone off Florida's Panhandle.

McCain says oil drilling off the coast should be left up to the states, but also notes there "are potentially valuable offshore drilling opportunities."

Romney says he supports "reasonable approaches to offshore drilling," but notes the federal government should work with the states "to balance American energy production and independence with environmental protection."

Huckabee supports the current no-drilling zone out 125 miles as "a good compromise," but notes he would work with states to "find a way both to be good stewards and to take advantage of the natural resources."

Giuliani and Huckabee have all questioned how much human activity is causing climate change, but say energy independence is the best way to offset global warming.

McCain was chief co-sponsor of a bill that sought mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions and a plan to require emissions to return to 2004 levels by 2012 and to 1990 levels by 2020.

As Massachusetts governor, Romney backed out of a regional pact to curb carbon dioxide emissions from power plants because it did not cap the higher energy costs it might place on businesses and consumers. He, too, says energy independence is the way to deal with global warming.

All the major Republican candidates support the current U.S. policy with Cuba.

On immigration, Giuliani, Huckabee and McCain all would consider a conditional path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, while Romney opposes policy that offers any special pathway.