COLUMBIA- Millions of dollars may be pouring in for bitter, outrageous ads in their race, but U.S. Rep. John Spratt and his Republican challenger Mick Mulvaney showed they could disagree civilly at their debate Friday.
The two did come after each other. The usually calm and quiet Spratt was especially feisty, raising his voice several times, including as he accused Mulvaney of abandoning a children's health insurance program Spratt championed.
Spratt started one response to Mulvaney on health insurance with: "The reason I have trouble taking you seriously."
Mulvaney continued his campaign's theme that Spratt, who is seeking his 15th term, has drifted left and supports national Democrats like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi more than people in his own district.
"You've heard talk in the past of how he is described as a bipartisan bridge builder. In the last several years, he voted with Nancy Pelosi 98 percent of the time. I can't imagine anything less bipartisan than doing that," Mulvaney said. "The truth of the matter, the last several years our congressman has changed. And it's time for us to change congressmen."
In the past few weeks, the race in South Carolina's 5th District has turned into a fight between groups with no apparent ties to the state. The chance to knock off a key Democrat like the chairman of the House Budget Committee is a golden opportunity for Republicans, who have spotlighted the race as a critical win in their efforts to take back control of the House.
The third party ads have been outrageous. One stuck the heads of Spratt, Pelosi and President Barack Obama on can-can dancers to talk about a spending party in Washington. An ad from Democrats said Mulvaney would make Social Security illegal, ending with the image of a gray-haired lady in a frumpy dress and pearls behind bars with a picture of Mulvaney in front of the cell. The businessman and state senator from Lancaster County vehemently denies the allegations in the ad.
While third party ad spending in the race creeps toward $2 million, the candidates also are raking in seven-figure amounts. Sprat's campaign announced Friday he raised more than $600,000 in June, July and September and has received close to $1.7 million from donors this year. The Democrat has about $1 million to spend during the final weeks of the campaign.
During Friday's debate, Mulvaney said his fundraising numbers were even better than Spratt's, but his campaign didn't immediately provide details.
Friday's debate, which will be shown 1 p.m. Sunday on SCETV stations across the state, was the third and final meeting between the two candidates and showed the fairly wide gulf between their positions.
They disagreed over the role of the federal stimulus. Spratt recalled a dire meeting two years ago with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke where lawmakers were told the U.S. economy could be on the brink of collapse.
"Under the circumstances, I think it was right on the mark," Spratt said.
Mulvaney think the stimulus was unnecessary and wasteful.
Mulvaney wants to make the tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush permanent, while Spratt supports only extending them for a year or two until the economy gets better.
Spratt said he still supports the health care reform law passed last year. He said the bill wasn't perfect, but items like extending the time children can stay on their parents' policy and keeping insurers from kicking kids off of policies for preexisting conditions outweigh any problems.
Mulvaney wants to scrap the bill and start over.
"I don't believe that health care in a fundamental right, because once you declare that it is a fundamental right, that means someone has a fundamental obligation to pay for it," Mulvaney said.
After the debate, Mulvaney said Spratt attacked him because he knows he is behind in the polls.
This looks like Spratt's toughest race. Even though his district has voted for a Republican for president every year since the Democrat joined the House in 1983, Spratt has always won at least 52 percent of the vote.
"It's a horse race. The numbers are so volatile and squishy, you'll never know until election day," Spratt said after the debate, saying he was attacking Mulvaney's record to "get the attention of my constituents and get them excited so hopefully they will turn out to vote."
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