Uncertainties, Torn Loyalties Vex Lawmakers

WASHINGTON —  Rep. Hamilton Fish Jr., a senior Republican, had been bombarded by opponents of the North American Free Trade Agreement while appearing on a cable television call-in show, only to be cornered at a black-tie dinner two nights later by equally adamant business leaders who favor the pact.

But in the end, his decision to vote for the agreement crystallized during a few hours of solitude at his Upstate New York home, as he took advantage of unseasonably warm weather to mulch his garden and plant bulbs to brighten the view from his kitchen window.

“I came here to think about what I know and not listen to any more arguments,” he said in an interview. “It’s time to stop and be contemplative and think about how all this adds up and what is best for your country.”

For Fish and several dozen officially uncommitted lawmakers, the final days before the vote on the trade agreement have been intense, filled with consultations and confrontations with constituents at home. Most returned to Washington Monday with at least a clearer idea of what they would do when the trade agreement comes to a vote in the House Wednesday. But it was clear that for many--perhaps most--feelings of uncertainty and torn loyalties would linger until the last moment if not beyond.

As he announced his decision Monday to support the trade agreement, Fish--an anomalous Republican who is often aligned with liberal causes--said that he had listened carefully to the arguments against the pact by labor and environmental leaders, who have been “allies of mine over the years in the cause of social justice and environmental protection.”

But in a district that has suffered thousands of job losses, he said, it seemed that the best hope was “the vision, the promise of a Western Hemisphere trade zone.”

The experiences of Fish and four other House members in the last days before the crucial trade vote demonstrate vividly how the pressure builds when a representative is faced with a choice that inevitably benefits some voters at the expense of others.

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Houston congressman Gene Green had hoped for a quiet weekend with his family in Austin, where his daughter is a freshman at the University of Texas. Instead, he found himself at a huge rally in opposition to the trade agreement at AFL-CIO headquarters there.

Though the Democrat has not committed his vote and did not speak during his appearance on the podium, it was clear that the crowd considered him an ally. “Gene Green’s history is with the unions,” said Gary Horton, regional director of the AFL-CIO. “This is where he came from.”

For Green, the vote on the trade pact has the potential to be a career-breaker.

His election last year was considered something of a fluke in an oddly shaped new district that had been tailor-made to facilitate the election of a Latino. It includes the Ship Channel, through which flows much of Texas’ $18-billion-a-year trade with Mexico, but it is also the second-most unionized in the state.

In their meetings with him, Administration officials have hinted that $10 million for a badly needed bridge in his district might be made to materialize if he supports the trade pact. “I’ve been told I could pretty well name my price, but it’s too high a price. You can’t trade a bridge for something this important,” he confided to a constituent at the rally.

And as he chatted with a group of longshoremen from his district, Green added: “If I voted today, I’d vote no. But I want to support the President we worked so hard to elect, to listen to what he has to say.”

The freshman congressman added that he would announce his decision Monday evening, after a face-to-face meeting with the President in the Oval Office.

At the meeting, Clinton tried to reassure Green by stressing his plans for worker retraining and the agreement’s “safety valve” that would allow the United States to back out if blue collar job loss should prove too great.

But late Monday night, Green was still having trouble making up his mind.

“Thank goodness, the vote is not until Wednesday,” he said.

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Former President Jimmy Carter had telephoned. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt had flown down from Washington. And finally, freshman Rep. Nathan Deal opened the doors of his Gainesville, Ga., office to any constituent who wanted to come and talk about the North American Free Trade Agreement.

In they filed--lawyers, farmers, bankers, homemakers, airline pilots, poultry executives and apparel workers, 100 in all. And as they signed their names on a yellow pad, 52 indicated that they are against the accord, 35 said they are for it and the remainder said they are undecided.

“It’s tough. I don’t know what I’m going to do right now,” Deal told one group.

The poultry and textile industries are the district’s primary employers. Poultry producers back the trade pact, noting that their sales to Mexico have grown 329% in the last five years alone. The textile industry is split, in part because the United States has not done a very good job of enforcing current trade agreements in the face of massive illegal imports from China.

Poultry and carpet plants also have drawn many Latino laborers to Deal’s district, and he concedes that many of his constituents cannot separate their feelings for the trade pact from negative feelings toward the workers in a county where fewer than 5% of all residents are black or Latino.

And then there is the question of the Democratic freshman’s support for a Democratic President. Some have said that a setback on the trade agreement could be a crippling defeat for Clinton’s presidency.

Now, said Hoyt Robinson, a retired state employee who had met with Deal, “he needs to think about his vote and his future. He needs to remember he’s a Democrat, and the Democratic Party elected him.”

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When Democratic freshman Karen Shepherd finally announced her decision to support the trade agreement Sunday, she chose the regional office of American Express Corp. and surrounded herself with executives of that company, Hercules Corp., United Parcel Service and Leucadia Corp.

All are companies that expect to benefit from lower trade barriers between the United States and Mexico and all have their headquarters or major operations in her Salt Lake City district.

“If we fold inward and retreat, rather than find new markets for American products and expand trade, our nation’s economy will die a slow death,” she declared.

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On Sunday morning, freshman Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, a former Chicago alderman who ran for his present position with the blessing of Mayor Richard M. Daley, who favors the trade pact, announced he would vote against it. It is a decision that he had made the day before, he said, and one that endangers his political future.

“I have been called again and again by friends and supporters--and contributors,” he said. Though they still shared his views on such important issues as health care reform, gun control and affordable housing, Gutierrez said, “one after another they have said to me: ‘Luis, we cannot contribute to you any more if you vote against NAFTA.’ ”

But he said that he believes some vital components are missing from the trade pact.

What finally swayed him, he said, was a single constituent’s plea: “He said, ‘Luis, I don’t have much trust in elected officials these days. But every now and then, you have to hope they just vote their conscience and do what is right for America.’ ”

“On Wednesday, I will vote my conscience.”

Contributing to this story were special correspondent Helaine Olen in New York and researchers Tracy Shryer in Chicago; Edith Stanley in Gainesville, Ga.; Ann Rovin in Salt Lake City; and Lianne Hart in Austin, Tex.

* KIRKLAND ASSAILS CLINTON: Labor chief says President has “abdicated” party leadership in pressing for NAFTA votes. A20