GINGRICH TO VISIT CAPE

House Speaker Newt Gingrich will visit Cape Girardeau June 27 to raise money for Jo Ann Emerson's re-election campaign.

Gingrich, the nation's third-highest-ranking official, will attend an evening fund-raiser at the Cape Girardeau Holiday Inn.

Details are still being finalized, but Emerson said the fund-raiser may be one of several events that Gingrich attends that day in Cape Girardeau.

Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, said she hopes to schedule an event to allow the general public a chance to hear the speaker.

She said some people can't afford to attend a fund-raiser.

"I feel very honored that he will come on my behalf," said Emerson.

She said she and her late husband, Bill, had "a close, personal friendship" with Gingrich.

Emerson only has been in office a few months. She already is gearing up for the 1998 election.

She was elected in November to the 8th District House seat. She succeeded her late husband, who died last summer from lung cancer.

She said Gingrich's visit will bring in campaign money and give the House speaker a look at rural America.

"It is important for him to see and touch and feel rural America and understand the challenges it has," said Emerson.

Unlike Emerson's sprawling rural district of Southeast Missouri, Gingrich represents a heavily populated suburban district north of Atlanta.

Gingrich is the first Republican to be re-elected House speaker since 1928. He was elected speaker on Jan. 4, 1995, and re-elected in January.

Gingrich is serving his 10th term in Congress. He represents the 6th District of Georgia.

He was the subject of a two-year ethics probe that concluded when the full House voted to discipline him for ethical misconduct and fined him $300,000. Gingrich said at the time that he failed to seek proper legal advice in his involvement in tax-exempt projects.

Acknowledged as the chief architect of the Republican "Contract with America," he chaired the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego. He was Time magazine's "Man of the Year" in 1995.

This will be Gingrich's second visit to Cape Girardeau. He was among a number of dignitaries who attended the funeral for Bill Emerson last June.