BY MARK SILVA

 LOS ANGELES -- As the Democratic Party readies for the official nomination of
 Al Gore later this week, its standing among Cuban Americans has hit a new
 low-point -- a perilous factor in a critical fight for Florida's electoral vote.

 Cuban Americans account for 8 percent, or 400,000 of the anticipated five million
 Floridians voting this year.

 The Democratic National Convention this week isn't likely to help attract that
 segment of voters, many say. Democrats today are expected to adopt a platform
 that has little detail about Cuba.

 By contrast, the Republican Party's platform position is perhaps its toughest on
 Cuba and Fidel Castro ever.

 But it's not only the party's stance on Cuba that is undercutting its support among
 Cuban Americans.

 The saga of young shipwreck survivor Elián González, seized from the home of
 Miami relatives by armed Border Patrol agents in April, casts a lingering shadow.

 ``I don't think there is much the Democrats can do in this particular election to
 gain back a significant number of Cuban-American voters,'' pollster Sergio
 Bendixen said. ``Emotional feelings after the Elián González case are just too
 strong to turn around or change over a two-month period.''

 Support for Gore among Cuban-American voters has fallen to 7 percent, according
 to a national poll to be released today by Bendixen's Hispanic Trends. Republican
 nominee George W. Bush is favored by 75 percent.

 In July, Hispanic Trends found: Bush 75, Gore 12. The possible margin of error in
 these surveys was seven percentage points.

 The Gore campaign maintains that, despite their platform's comparatively weak
 position, Gore and running mate Joseph Lieberman personally represent the
 strongest commitment to issues of greatest concern to Cuban-American voters.
 They both support the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, the campaign notes,
 while Bush running mate Dick Cheney has spoken critically of U.S. trade
 sanctions in his service as chief executive of a Texas-based oil-drilling supplier.

 ``We have 100 percent on Cuba: Gore and Lieberman,'' says Mitchell Berger, a
 Fort Lauderdale attorney and friend of Gore who will host the vice president at a
 fundraiser in Fort Lauderdale Aug. 23.

 ``We have no noses under the tent,'' Berger says, ``They have big noses under
 the tent. The man George Bush says he will rely on for foreign policy wants to lift
 the embargo.''

 Since joining Bush's ticket, Cheney has been careful to distinguish between Cuba
 and Iraq in his criticism of embargoes. In any event, the GOP's backers say, it
 will be Bush who determines presidential policy.

 Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, says:
 ``Although we were concerned with Dick Cheney early on because of his
 opposition to sanctions, since then we have been pleased with his clarification.
 And the truth of the matter is, it is the president who is in control of foreign
 policy.''

 Lieberman's long-standing friendship with Cuban-American activists in Miami --
 thanks to his allegiance to issues of Cuban liberty since election to the Senate in
 1988 -- could prevent CANF leaders from lining up behind one of the presidential
 candidates. Yet, some say, Lieberman's record isn't likely to matter among voters
 who view the election as a matchup of Bush and Gore.

 ``Those who have been active with him know about Joe Lieberman, but that is a
 very small percentage of the community,'' said Domingo Moreira, a CANF board
 member and Bush supporter. ``George W. Bush has been very upfront, and he
 has a great deal of support in the community.''

 Support for Republican nominees has been crucial to their success in Florida,
 where Presidents Reagan and Bush commanded 80 percent and more of the
 Cuban-American vote in the 1980s. Clinton was able to make inroads, gaining 42
 percent of Florida's Hispanic vote in his 1996 contest with Bob Dole -- the first
 time in 20 years that a Democratic nominee had carried the state.

 But polling this year by both Bendixen and Knight Ridder newspapers has found
 support running at a consistent 75 percent for Bush among Cuban Americans.

 The GOP has enhanced its position this year with a statement decrying Fidel
 Castro's ``repression of 11 million Cubans.''

 The Republican platform insists on no change in U.S. policy until Cuba stops
 harassing dissidents, restricting its economy or forcing ``Cubans into the sea in a
 desperate bid for freedom.'' It calls for toughening U.S. policy with ``active
 American support for Cuban dissidents.''

 ``It is the best Cuban platform in the history of the Republican Party,'' the CANF's
 Garcia said. ``We are thrilled with the candidate of the Republican Party. . . . We
 could not be more pleased with his positions on Cuba.''

 The Republican platform, however, contrasts with the views of some
 congressional Republicans from farm states who have been pushing legislation
 that would allow for the sale of food and medicine to Cuba.

 The Democratic platform ready for adoption in Los Angeles speaks of rededication
 to ``the defense of democracy.'' As tools of this, it cites Radio Martí -- yet
 overlooks TV Martí. It makes no mention of the trade embargo.

 ``Don't read too much into it,'' cautions Sen. Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat
 and co-chairman of the platform committee. ``The important thing is Vice
 President Gore and Sen. Lieberman, where they stand.''

 During the Elián saga, Gore took a stance apart from Clinton by supporting a
 family court hearing and, later, residency for the boy.

 During platform deliberations, Durbin said, there was no attempt to toughen the
 Cuba plank. Its wording came to him from the Democratic National Committee, he
 said, and one platform can't cover every political issue.

 ``We tried to come up with a concise statement that is a window on the soul of
 the party,'' Durbin said of his party's 50-page platform. ``When it comes to foreign
 policy, you can't imagine how many areas we could have gotten into.''

 Bendixen calls the party's failure to take the issue more seriously an
 acknowledgement of its prospects among Cuban-American voters.

 The Gore campaign, maintaining it is serious about claiming Florida's 25 electoral
 votes, says it will appeal to the Cuban-American voter as it will to Hispanics
 generally -- and indeed voters at large. Its appeal is the strength of the economy,
 and Gore's promise for further progress.

 ``Our campaign in Florida is focused on the issues that affect Cuban Americans
 and everybody -- prescription drugs, health care, strong education and making
 sure our prosperity benefits everyone and not just a few. . . . And that is where
 the focus is going to be,'' Gore spokesman Doug Hattaway said.