RIDGELAND -- Partisan election filing typically starts off a party's run toward November, but for Republicans in the mostly Democratic Jasper County, the election year wrapped up before the first campaign sign decorated the roadside.

Duane Swygert, the county's Republican Party chairman, received no candidates to contest the eight local and state offices up for election in Jasper County this year.

"We had several people that wanted to run for office, but they were too busy, had children or some other social issue," he said.

The lack of Republican filings is nothing new to Swygert though. Since 1996, there have been Republican candidates for only five of 28 partisan county races.

"I'm disappointed in it and our government has suffered because of it," Swygert said.

For Arthur Murphy, the Democratic Party chairman, two names stuck out when reading the list of candidates for the June 8 Democratic primary: Gladys Jones and Keith Horton, both former Republicans.

Jones, a first-term councilwoman and the only Republican elected to county office in at least 10 years, was expected to switch parties after a conversation with Murphy last year.

"She said she was originally a Democrat, she had always voted Democrat and she was coming back," Murphy said.

But Horton's name listed among Democratic challengers to Rep. Thayer Rivers, D-Ridgeland, for the House seat sent up red flags, he said.

"We're keeping a close eye on events to avoid disruption of the party," he said.

Both parties' chairmen said switching parties takes conviction and a change in perspective.

"When they switch parties, they really have to change their way of thinking," Murphy said.

Candidates may also be looking at the fact that the Democratic primary pulls in more voters than a Republican primary, Swygert said.

"Even though you might be a conservative voice, you have to ask yourself which is more important: the election or the party," he said.

Party switching does go both ways. Danny McKenzie, a council member unseated in 2000, spent his last year in office as a Republican, and Brenda Horton, a former county treasurer, switched parties after she lost her office in a close 2002 Democratic primary.

Despite the quiet election year for Jasper Republicans, Swygert said he is hopeful for the future.

"With more hard work on our party's side, as things change for the good in the state under Republican leadership and as people move in to Jasper County, you'll see a swing to the conservative side," he said.

Non-partisan petition filling will be accepted for all offices through July 15.