Free Republic

Three longtime House Democrats holding gavels of power were defeated Tuesday night, with Republicans ousting Members with 98 years of combined experience who served as top lieutenants to Speaker Nancy Pelosi . Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (Minn.), Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton (Mo.) and Budget Chairman John Spratt (S.C.) all lost as Republicans regained control of the chamber in a wave that has ousted at least 60 Democrats.

Watching web coverage, looks like John Spratt is going to fall to a conservative. Mulvaney is wiping the floor with him. Spratt was supposed to be unbeatable. Having a great time tonight!

Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.) trails Republican Mick Mulvaney by 10 points, 39 percent to 49 percent, with 10 percent of likely voters undecided, according to The Hill 2010 Midterm Election Poll. Mulvaney is winning independents by 23 points and leads among male, female, middle-aged and older voters. The only group Spratt leads is younger voters, but he’s winning that unpredictable voting group by a mere two points. Spratt’s favorability rating is 41 percent, with 47 percent rating him unfavorably. And 43 percent said Spratt’s 14 terms in Congress were a reason to vote against him. Spratt is the chairman of...

Likely Republican gain of 45-55 seats, with 60 seats possible. Republicans need to net 39 seats for a majority.

The Democratic Congressional Committee has reserved ad buys in Rep. Heath Shuler's (D-N.C.) district for the first time, another sign that the DCCC is having to spend money on incumbents who were previously believed to be safe. The ad reservations, confirmed by multiple sources tracking ad buys, show that the DCCC is continuing to reevaluate where to spend its resources in the final weeks of the campaign. In addition to Shuler, the DCCC has also increased its ad reservations for House Budget Committee Chair John Spratt (D-S.C.) and Rep. Mike McIntyre's (D-N.C.), both of whom who hold solidly Republican seats...

[ . . . ] But they [Republicans] also need to adjust their sights higher and aim for more seats. To confine themselves to the races in which they hold slight leads or are within five points would be to leave on the table dozens of Democratic incumbents who could be defeated in this landslide year. The danger here is not overconfidence but underconfidence, and that Democratic incumbents who could be defeated will skate to victories. Despite a massive victory in the offing for Republicans, there could be great gnashing of teeth when they see how narrowly some of the...

There are many national and statewide organizations that promote themselves as pro-small business, but none can claim to be America's leading small business association. That honor is reserved for the National Federation of Independent Businesses. With 5,000 small business members in South Carolina, we are very careful when choosing which lawmakers and candidates to support. In the 5th Congressional District, we have evaluated the voting records of Congressman John Spratt and state Senator Mick Mulvaney. Without a doubt, the candidate that you can most trust to protect the small businesses in this state and create an environment that fosters job...

Pelosi ties threaten to sink John SprattBy JESSICA TAYLOR | 10/7/10 4:30 AM EDT ROCK HILL, S.C. — The combination of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Barack Obama is casting a colossal shadow over Democrat John Spratt’s reelection campaign, and the 28-year House veteran all but acknowledges that, as a result, he is facing the toughest election test of his career. While the president is unpopular in rural South Carolina’s 5th District, it’s hard to compare with the off-the-charts animosity toward Pelosi — sentiment that is regularly stoked by a deluge of television ads, paid for by the National...

"Sack Spratt." It's a message that's hard to miss, and for many people, one even harder to ignore. During the past couple months, the bright yellow signs emblazoned with red text opposing long-sitting U.S. Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., have blanketed South Carolina's 5th Congressional District in the ramp-up to the Nov. 2 election, where the 28-year congressman will face state Sen. Mick Mulvaney, R-Indian Land. Sources with knowledge of the issue cite Gardner Gore, who was chairman of the campaign to elect Republican Ralph Norman to Spratt's seat in 2006, with creating and funding the signs. [...] Gore is also...

Looks like someone snuck a camera in after all. SC-5 incumbent John Spratt (D) requested that the debate not allow any video or audio. State Sen. Mick Mulvaney reluctantly agreed, since he had earlier challenged Spratt to a debate on any terms. http://www.sc5codered.com/2010/09/the-great-debate-mick-mulvany-v-john-spratt/

LAKE WYLIE -- In their only scheduled debate, U.S. Rep. John Spratt and Republican challenger Mick Mulvaney laid out starkly different visions of the federal government, in areas ranging from health care and taxes to immigration and energy reform. Read more: http://www.heraldonline.com/2010/09/07/2433840/spratt-mulvaney-spar-over-health.html#ixzz0yxwMuxOz

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- U.S. Rep. John Spratt will debate his Republican challenger Mick Mulvaney on Tuesday, but the only people who will get to see any of it have already bought tickets to the sold out dinner at a South Carolina Lions Club.

The communications director for U.S. Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., recently made comments comparing the likeability of the congressman's opponent to that of the world's most well-known terrorist. On Wednesday, Columbia's Free Times published a story quoting Spratt Communications Director Wayne Wingate as saying, "If Osama bin Laden ran in this district as a Republican, he would get 38 to 40 percent of the vote in any election year." State Sen. Mick Mulvaney, R-Indian Land, is running against Spratt to represent South Carolina's 5th Congressional District in Washington. A day after the comment was published, Wingate said he was standing by...

Republicans will likely reclaim the U.S. House of Representatives and could win a majority in the U.S. Senate in the November elections, national conservative columnist Jim Geraghty said during a meeting of the First Monday Republican Lunch Group on Hilton Head Island. "If you're a Republican and you're staying home this year and not getting excited, just curl up and die," Geraghty said Monday, drawing laughter from the crowd. Geraghty is a columnist for The National Review and periodically offers commentary on CNN and Fox News. He is tentatively scheduled to appear Friday on "The Sean Hannity Show" on Fox...

John Spratt is in Sarah Palin's cross-hairs. The S.C. Democrat is one of 20 congressmen -- and the only one from the Carolinas -- whose seats Palin's SarahPAC is targeting after Sunday's health care vote. Spratt, of York, has survived 14 terms in a district that's consistently gone Republican in presidential races. Two years ago he got 62 percent of the vote while John McCain was getting 53 percent. "We’re paying particular attention to those House members who voted in favor of Obamacare and represent districts that Senator John McCain and I carried during the 2008 election," Palin wrote on...

State Sen. Mick Mulvaney (R), who is challenging House Budget Chairman John Spratt (D), will be promoted today to the second-highest level of the National Republican Congressional Committee's "Young Guns" fundraising and campaign infrastructure program. The move to name Mulvaney as one of 22 "Contender" candidates comes ahead of what committee officials expect to be a strong first-quarter fundraising report. When he entered the race in October, Mulvaney's deep pockets were viewed as an attractive campaign asset. In the fourth quarter, he loaned himself $75,000, which helped him show more campaign receipts than Spratt for the three-month period. Spratt, a...

By FITSNews || S.C. Senator Mick Mulvaney wasted no time in capitalizing on U.S. Rep. John Spratt’s latest show of support for President Barack Obama’s controversial socialized medicine proposals. The first-term GOP Senator – who was already running neck-and-neck with Spratt leading up to Sunday’s vote – has launched a petition on his website seeking to drum up opposition to the fourteen-term incumbent, who served as the primary sponsor of Obama’s legislation. The petition has already received hundreds of signatures, a source close to Mulvaney’s campaign tells FITS

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With national attention being placed on spending, healthcare “reform” and jobs, it’s easy to forget that, as Tip O’neill said, “All politics is local.” With this in mind, I reached out to the Republican candidate for the 5th Congressional District in SC, Michael (Mick) Mulvaney. Currently Mulvaney is a state senator, but he now seeks national office, and, more specifically, the seat of Rep. John Spratt (D). Unseating Rep. Spratt will be no easy task. He’s a 14-term incumbent and Chairman of the Budget Finance Committee. In spite of this, Time Magazine named Sen. Mulvaney’s campaign to be of the...

George Miller is a liberal. He is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the most liberal group in Congress. Besides Miller, its members include Barney Frank, Henry Waxman, Charlie Rangel, Bernie Sanders, Maxine Waters, Corinne Brown, Alan Grayson, and Dennis Kucinich. Miller enjoys the enthusiastic support of voters in California’s 7th District. Since 1976, he as never received less than 60% of the vote, and usually racks up more than 70%. CA-7 is a very liberal district, and voters there think that George Miller’s liberal ideology is right for them. In a recent poll of John Spratt’s district, 47%...