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Friday, October 14, 2005

SC-05: Republicans Afraid of Bush

I see that the GOP has found someone to take on Rep. John Spratt, a popular Democrat who represents South Carolina's 5th district. Actually, they already had someone - the winner, believe it or not, of the Showtime reality show "American Candidate." A bored press corps will probably get a few mild kicks out of following the Republican primary.

I'm not terribly worried about this seat, not least because Spratt won by a considerable 63-37 margin last time out. Yes, seats like that are loseable - but not often, and only when the political tides are really favoring your party. But of course, the opposite is the case, and what really jumped out at me in this article was the following bit:

With Bush's faltering popularity, Republicans might not be able to count on the president's coattails. That means some "Republicans know that they have to run from the president just to save their own seats," [Winthrop University political science professor Scott] Huffmon said. "They know that is not a good thing."

This Prof. Huffmon is, of course, just one expert, and heaven knows we drub the "experts" regularly here in blogland. So I'm not going to take what he says at face-value just because it happens to gibe with my hopes. But it does align with my reality-based expectations, and it's one of the most explicit times I've seen the cognoscenti state that GOP minions are really trying to distance themselves from Bush. It's definitely a phenomenon that bears watching.

Posted at 11:08 AM in 2006 Elections - House, South Carolina | Technorati

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Comments

South Carolina and (D) rarely go together these days, but the rural regions of the state, particularly in the eastern half, aren't too bad at all. If I'm not mistaken, Spratt's district covers much of the northeastern region of SC which is heavily black and rural, so I don't see him as particularly vulnerable.

Posted by: Mark at October 14, 2005 11:32 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment