Oregon Public Broadcasting

Mike Erickson, the Republican candidate for Oregon's Fifth Congressional District, is facing scutiny about a trip to Cuba he made four years ago.

As Andrew Theen reports, Erickson claims an Oregonian investigation into the trip was filled with "misinformation."

Mike Erickson said he went to Cuba to aid disabled Cubans.

But an Oregonian report said the real reason for the trip was to attend a Cuban Cigar festival and an auction named in honor of Fidel Castro.

Erickson said the trip was "one third humanitarian"  and the rest of his time was spent sight-seeing and conversing with locals. 

He said others in his party may have smoked cigars, fished, and hunted, all activities offered by the trip organizer, but Erickson denied participating in those activities.

Mike Erickson: "That other 2/3rds wasn't just leisure or whatever it was.  I was constantly always asking 'hey what's going on in your country here?'  They want to get out of that country.  They want to leave.  They can't."

Erickson called the article another "smear tactic."  This is the candidate's second major controversy after allegations arose that he paid for a girlfriend's abortion in 2000.