LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. (AP) -- Congressional candidate Mike Erickson estimates he spent roughly "a third" of his time distributing medical supplies during a trip to Cuba in 2004.

At a news conference arranged one day after The Oregonian newspaper published an article about Erickson's visit, the Republican said he brought 20 boxes of medical supplies to the Communist country and delivered them to aid clinics over two days.

"Maybe some people may have gone there for a different purpose, but not me. Mike Erickson went there truly to see and feel what the people in Cuba were going through," he said.

Erickson said he has receipts documenting the boxes of supplies but can't find them.

Traveling to Cuba is sharply restricted by the U.S. government. Erickson was part of a group that gave medical donations to get into the country, but the newspaper reported Sunday that he spent most of the week vacationing.

Erickson, for example, visited the Tropicana nightclub and attended Fidel Castro's Annual Gala Cigar Dinner and Auction.

Erickson faces Democratic state Sen. Kurt Schrader in the Nov. 4 election for the 5th Congressional District, which includes the mid-Willamette Valley.

He was introduced at the news conference by Brian Bittke, who is on the board of directors for Open Arms International, a Portland-based medical missionary aid group.

"Mike's a man with a heart for those in need," he said.

Erickson acknowledged attending the Castro cigar dinner, but said Castro did not attend. He said the parts of the trip that did not involve distributing medical supplies were educational.

"Every time I was at dinner, I would talk to the waiters and waitresses and say, 'Hey, you're young. What do you want to do in life?"' he said.

"The other two-thirds wasn't just leisure, or just whatever it was. I was constantly always asking, 'Hey, what's going on in your country here?"'

He said he returned with a renewed appreciation for life in the United States.