Free Republic

Presidential candidate Fred Thompson will be a special guest at a tribute dinner for state Republican Party Chairman Jim Herring on Nov. 19 at the Jackson Hilton on County Line Road. Thompson will join Herring and other state GOP leaders at the event beginning with a 5:30 p.m. reception. The dinner is being hosted by the Mississippi Republican Elected Officials Association. When he considers the position of the Republican Party in Mississippi, Herring thinks the hard work in the past is paying huge dividends in the present. "The most satisfying part of it is seeing your organization grow and prosper,...

<p>Carol Moseley Braun Less than 1 percent.</p> <p>Fourteen percent were undecided.</p> <p>Wesley Clark, in Jackson to court Mississippi voters on his Southern "True Grits Tour," vowed to reach out to millions of Americans without health insurance and took aim at President Bush's Iraq strategy.</p>

<p>About a half-dozen Mississippi Republican Party staffers received letters this week saying they must reapply for their jobs.</p> <p>There's no guarantee they will stay aboard. It's part of a shakeup the state GOP headquarters is experiencing as Gov.-elect Haley Barbour prepares for his Jan. 13 inauguration.</p>

<p>The Mississippi Republican Party began the election season with a barrage of faxes and Web sites attacking Democratic lawmakers with hopes of increasing GOP numbers in the 2004 Legislature.</p> <p>The strategy failed on at least one front, laments GOP Chairman Jim Herring.</p>