WASHINGTON It was around dusk when about 15 of Marcia Fudge’s sorority sisters gathered on the deck of a friend’s house in Warrensville Heights, Ohio.
It had been a tough day. They had attended the funeral of U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a fellow member of Delta Sigma Theta. Fudge, a close friend and former chief of staff for Tubbs Jones, told them that August day in 2008 that some power brokers had urged her to run for the congressional seat.
She thought maybe she could protect the legacy of Tubbs Jones.
Fudge had been mayor in Warrensville Heights, a city of fewer than 14,000 people. A congressional campaign would require a huge war chest.