McMickle jumps in

Another familiar name has jumped into the race to succeed Stephanie Tubbs Jones in Congress: Rev. Marvin McMickle, pastor of Antioch Baptist Church. McMickle ran for this seat in 1998, losing to Tubbs Jones, and ran for U.S. Senate in 2000. Yesterday, I called Marcia Fudge (see post below) the front-runner for the job, and she probably still is, but McMickle is also a strong, well-known candidate.

Click here to see our piece about McMickle in our Influentials issue this April. We've also written about two of the other candidates: Jeff Johnson, in our 35th anniversary issue this December, and Bill Patmon, in our coverage of the 2005 mayor's race (click here and scroll down).

Marcia Fudge, front-runner

With county commissioner Peter Lawson Jones deciding not to run for Congress, Warrensville Heights Mayor Marcia Fudge is now the front-runner to succeed Stephanie Tubbs Jones in Washington next year.

Fudge was Tubbs Jones' chief of staff and protege, long considered a possible successor to her.

You can read Cleveland Magazine's January 2007 profile of Fudge here.

The local Democratic party is holding a Sept. 11 meeting to choose who will take Tubbs Jones' place on the November ballot. That candidate will be heavily favored over the Republican in the heavily Democratic district. Mayor Frank Jackson and former U.S. Rep. Louis Stokes plan to interview the candidates and issue an influential endorsement. Others running include former state senators Jeff Johnson and C.J. Prentiss and former Cleveland city councilman Bill Patmon.

Stephanie Tubbs Jones

U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones died at Huron Hospital after suffering a brain aneurysm Tuesday night. She was a Cleveland icon, and a state icon as the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress.

Cleveland Magazine ran a lengthy feature on Tubbs Jones in 1993 as she was still a rising political power and named her one of the 30 people who defined Cleveland in 2002.