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CQ PoliticsOhio Democrat Marcia L. Fudge, a suburban Cleveland mayor, earned a virtually certain trip to Congress Thursday night, as party officials in the state’s 11th District tapped her for the Nov. 4 general election ballot slot vacated by the Aug. 20 death of five-term Democratic Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones .
Fudge, a lawyer, serves as mayor of Warrensville Heights, located in a congressional district that includes the east side of Cleveland and some suburbs elsewhere in Cuyahoga County. She also is a former chief of staff to Tubbs Jones — and her record and ties to the well-respected incumbent, who died a day after she suffered an aneurysm while driving, helped her win an easy first-ballot victory over four opponents in a vote by a committee of nearly 300 Democratic officials in the 11th District.
Fudge was picked over former state Sen. C. J. Prentiss, who advises Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland on education issues; Rev. Marvin McMickle and former state Sen. Jeffrey Johnson, both of whom lost to Tubbs Jones in a 1998 Democratic primary when the seat last was open; and Bill Patmon, a former Cleveland councilman. Michael Ryan, a judge in Cleveland, also originally was in the running, but he withdrew before the voting began.
The nomination of Fudge guarantees, for all practical purposes, that the long-standing continuity of both African-American and Democratic representation will endure for the district’s overwhelmingly Democratic black majority. Tubbs Jones was one of the most visible black House members during her tenure of nearly 10 years, as she represented a district that elected her by overwhelming margins and backed Democratic challenger John Kerry over President Bush by more than a 4-to-1 ratio in their 2004 election. Fudge on Nov. 4 will face Thomas Pekarek, the little-known Republican nominee.
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