No GOP primary in Lauderdale County

By By Terry R. Cassreino / assistant managing editor
Jan. 27, 2004
Lauderdale County could save about $25,000 now that the Mississippi Republican Party decided against participating in the March 9 Super Tuesday presidential preference primary.
Jim Herring, state GOP chairman, said in a letter to Secretary of State Eric Clark that a statewide Republican presidential primary is not needed because President George W. Bush would be unopposed for the nomination.
The Democratic presidential primary will continue as scheduled statewide. Ten Democratic candidates are running for the party's nomination and the right to challenge Bush in November
Herring's letter means counties in the 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts where Republican incumbents in the U.S. House are not challenged for their party nomination won't have a March 9 GOP primary.
Those counties include Kemper, Lauderdale, Neshoba and Newton in East Mississippi, all of which are represented in the House by Republican 3rd District U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering.
At the same time, counties in the 2nd and 4th Districts where more than one Republican candidate hopes to challenge the Democratic incumbent U.S. House member will have a GOP primary.
Clarke County is in the 4th District and will have a GOP primary.
Lauderdale County Circuit Clerk Donna Jill Johnson, whose office oversees elections, estimated that a Democratic and Republican primary could have cost the county more than $40,000.
She said the county could save around $25,000 by not having to pay the expense of poll workers, ballots and supplies needed to run a GOP primary.