Fred Thompson in Connecticut

This article appeared Monday on the Hartford Courant website:

Stuck between the home states of two of their party's presidential candidates, Connecticut Republicans are headlining their annual fundraiser with an actor-politician who may yet declare: Fred Dalton Thompson.

Thompson, 64, a former U.S. senator from Tennessee who now appears weekly as a district attorney on television's "Law & Order," will speak May 24 at the GOP's annual Prescott Bush dinner in Stamford.

With some national conservatives holding out Thompson as the next Ronald Reagan, getting the deep-voiced actor is a coup. But the state party had been aiming even higher - a joint appearance by presidential candidates John McCain of Arizona, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Rudy Giuliani of New York. "That couldn't be pulled together for obvious reasons - scheduling," said Chris Healy, the state chairman. "We thought who would be new and exciting. You make a list of who you would get if you could."