Poll says Spratt not supported by majority in district

A newly released poll shows longtime U.S. Rep. John Spratt, D-York, does not have the support of a majority of those polled in his district.

According North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling, Spratt leads Republicans state Sen. Mick Mulvaney 46-39 and Albert Spencer 46-37. By a 42-41 margin, more of those surveyed said they disapproved of Spratt's job performance.

But those surveyed said they thought Spratt was more conservative than his Democratic brethren in Washington, D.C., with 47 percent saying Spratt is "about right" ideologically while 31 percent said he was "too liberal."

“John Spratt is going to have to fight for re-election, but he’s in better shape than a lot of southern Democrats in conservative districts,” said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning pollster. “Most of his constituents still see him as a centrist, even as they see his congressional Democratic brethren as too liberal.”

Spratt has represented South Carolina's 5th Congressional District, which includes Rock Hill, York, Sumter and much of north central South Carolina, since 1983.

The poll surveyed 600 5th Congressional District voters from Jan. 22 to 24. The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 4 percent, meaning the poll could understate or overstate findings by four percentage points.

This story was originally published January 27, 2010 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Poll says Spratt not supported by majority in district."