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With Filing Approaching, Spratt Accelerates Campaign Preparations

Another Democratic retirement Thursday night has ratcheted up speculation over who may be the next to call it quits. But despite plenty of speculation on the GOP side, Rep. John Spratt’s (D-S.C.) office said Friday that the 14-term Congressman isn’t going anywhere.

“He intends to run,” said Spratt spokesman Chuck Fant.

In a sign that he’s moving forward with his re-election effort, Spratt is scheduled to hold a breakfast fundraiser for his campaign on Wednesday at Democratic National Committee headquarters, just off Capitol Hill. The event will take place less than a week before the first day of filing in South Carolina.

Republicans made a lot of noise about a possible Spratt retirement in January after fourth-quarter Federal Election Commission reports showed that state Sen. Mick Mulvaney (R) out-raised the House Budget chairman in the period. Mulvaney — who entered the 5th district race more than midway through the fourth quarter — helped accomplish that feat by loaning his campaign $75,000 on Dec. 31.

Republicans were quick to point out that Spratt’s fourth-quarter fundraising total included just four donations from South Carolina residents.

Fant said that Spratt’s August surgery to fix a bone spur slowed down fundraising during the fourth quarter but that Spratt has since “kicked it into higher gear.”

Another sign that Spratt is serious about his re-election is the fact that the Congressman is currently in the process of interviewing for a campaign manager. Spratt has retained Pattie Fiorello to do fundraising work in Washington, D.C., and Carolina Public Relations, which has handled his print media in the past.

Spratt won re-election with ease in 2008 despite the fact that he sits in a district that went for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) by 7 points in the 2008 presidential contest.

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