Rare statewide Democrat tries to hold on in Deep South
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood is hardly out of place in Southern politics: He speaks often about his Christian faith and rails against "perverts" and online predators who target children. He's a country guy with a less-than-polished speaking style. And yet he's a rarity, one of the few Democrats still holding statewide elected office in the solidly Republican South. That hasn't drained the swagger from his campaign as he seeks a fourth term as the state's top legal officer. Nor has it gotten in the way of his folksy roots. Even as Hood tangles in a legal battle with Google, he has moved his family away from the state capital of Jackson and back to his small hometown northern Mississippi, where he often works out of a satellite office. And he keeps the Conway Twitty haircut that's an editorial cartoonist's dream. "Sometimes, I don't get my hair cut as frequently as I should," Hood, 53, demurred in...