The Republican Governors Association has tapped a veteran committee insider, Georgia political hand Paul Bennecke, to serve as the group’s executive director under its newly elected chairman, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam.

When Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran filed papers to run for another term, the snowy-haired Republican listed the address of his campaign as a P.O. box in Tupelo, a town best known as the birthplace of Elvis Presley and a hub of the state’s conservative, northeast corner.

Thad Cochran’s political resurrection began with a campaign shakeup and ended with a Hail Mary television ad. Just three weeks ago, in the dead of night on June 3, the Mississippi senator’s staff sat shaken and dejected, crestfallen at the results of a primary that deprived the six-term incumbent of an