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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

Members and friends of the Green Party of Mississippi will be out in force to protest at the June 9 fundraising luncheon for Haley Barbour’s Republican gubernatorial campaign at the Gulf Coast Convention Center. Vice President Dick Cheney, former CEO of Halliburton, will be the main speaker.

The Green Party of Mississippi characterizes this $1000 a table event, hosted by corporate officers and business owners, as an excellent example of the corruption of government by wealthy and powerful corporate interests at the expense of citizen taxpayers, voters and labor.

The Green Party promotes voluntary public financing of all federal elections as the best and most comprehensive campaign finance reform. This measure would give candidates for public office strong incentives to choose public funding over private money. The power of government would thereby be restored to citizens who could then expect fair consideration by Congress and the White House of issues favorable to labor, the environment, public health, civil rights and world peace.

The Green Party of Mississippi’s own candidate for Governor, Sherman Lee Dillon, has refused any corporate donations and funds his campaign solely from donations from citizens of no more than $200.

The Green Party of Mississippi may be reached at http://www.greenpartyms.org or [e-mail missing], and Dillon’s campaign at http://www.dillon4gov.com, [e-mail missing], or 601-948-7818.

Event Contact:

Dr. Will Watson, Green Party of Mississippi/SMUP
cell: 228-669-9377
voice mail: 228-867-2629

e-mail: [e-mail missing]

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.