Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson will be in Jackson next Monday for a dinner honoring Mississippi GOP Chairman Jim Herring.

Meanwhile, former President Bill Clinton will attend a fundraiser for his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, on Dec. 15 at the home of Oxford lawyer Dickie Scruggs.

Mississippians will vote in the March 11 Super Tuesday presidential primary for Democrats and Republicans.

Mississippi and other Southern states are considered important for Thompson’s campaign because of primaries that follow the Feb. 5 “Super Tuesday” primaries of many other states, said Terry Benham, Thompson’s policy director for the Deep South.

McCain, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, two other GOP candidates, visited Mississippi earlier this year.

Sen. Barack Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, mingled with supporters at a Jackson fundraiser this summer. Democrat John Edwards, the 2004 vice presidential candidate, stopped in Canton and Marks on a national tour of impoverished communities.

Zach Scruggs said he and his father supported Sen. Clinton because of her support of legislation that would offer federally funded wind and flood insurance. Scruggs and other lawyers sued insurance companies after they denied Katrina claims.

Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Dowdy said he hasn’t decided which Democrat will earn his vote in the primary but added that he will support whoever the nominee is for the November 2008 general election.