Brie Zeltner, Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Warrensville Heights Mayor Marcia Fudge, a friend and sorority sister of the late U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, is putting her name forward as a potential replacement on the November ballot.
Fudge, a Democrat, will not run for the special election to finish out the last two months of Tubbs Jones’ 11th Congressional District term, which ends in December, she said. Tubbs Jones died of a burst brain aneurysm on Aug. 20.
Fudge, who declined to be interviewed during the past week because she said she needed the time to put her friend to rest, said she did not make the decision lightly.
“It’s very difficult to lose someone who is as close to me as Stephanie was,” she said. “Ultimately I decided that it was probably the best thing to do because I want to ensure that her legacy continues.”
Fudge, who met Tubbs Jones in 1982 through the Cleveland chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, said she feels that she is capable of carrying out that legacy because her values and ideals are closely aligned with her friend’s.
