Marcia Fudge opens campaign headquarters in Shaker Heights

"Hey Gingrich, nobody here likes you."

Although she no longer has even a remotely challenging primary now that state senator Nina Turner wisely decided to drop her candidacy and certainly has no challenging general election race, incumbent congresswoman Marcia Fudge (11th district) is running an aggressive reelection race. Yesterday she opened her campaign headquarters at Van Akin Center (at Van Akin and Warrensville) in Shaker Heights with a celebration that attracted a jam-packed house of Democratic activists, elected officials, and candidates.

That included mayors such as Warrensville Heights mayor Brad Sellers, Beachwood mayor Merle Gordon, and Shaker Heights Mayor Earl Leiken, county council member Julian Rogers, Cleveland city council member Jeff Johnson (as well as council members from numerous suburbs), state representative Sandra Williams, and a representative from Senator Sherrod Brown's office. Four of the five candidates for county prosecutor were in the house (Subodh Chandra had his triplets in tow!), and of course, the place was crawling with judicial candidates.

There was also a guest from Texas, state representative Dawnna Dukes of the Austin area, who was in town visiting with Johnson. She told the assembled Ohioans whose districts have been scrambled by Republicans about the dirty tricks Texas Republicans are trying to pull. Texas has gained four congressional districts. Dukes said that 90 % of that population gain has been minorities, but Republicans are trying to claim 3 of the 4 districts for themselves (i.e. white people).

Texas state rep. Dawnna Dukes tells Clevelanders that Texas Republicans don't believe in fair representation either.

Rep. Fudge had some very pointed words about some of her Republican colleagues. She said, "Have we lost our moral compass that we say when people can't get jobs they are lazy, that people aren't educated because they don't want to be? They spout the Bible — but how can you be a Christian and hate people?"

She also had some choice words about Newt Gingrich's presidential candidacy, calling him the "meanest, most evil" candidate in the race and adding that congresspeople on both sides of the aisle dislike him.

"Have you seen any congresspeople endorse him?" she pointed out. (Actually, he has received a handful — less than a dozen — including odious congressman Jack Kingston of Georgia, the state that accounts for most of his these endorsements. But with a Chuck Norris endorsement, what else do you need?)

Fudge also said she won't take a side in the primary race between her two fellow incumbents Dennis Kucinich and Marcy Kaptur. "I have the greatest respect for both of them," she said.

Chandra triplets pretend they're interested in political speeches.