Stephanie Tubbs Jones

The following is a guest post from Kenneth D. McClintock, President of the Senate, Puerto Rico

LORAIN, OHIO-Normally, once the Democratic National Convention presidential nomination roll call ends, the confetti is swept away and the hoopla subsides, Puerto Rico's electoral role is over, due to the fact that American citizens residing in the territories lack the right to vote in November. This time around, however, we're just getting started.

Democratic State Chair Roberto Prats and I, as co-chairs of Hillary Clinton's successful primary campaign in Puerto Rico, had made the commitment that, regardless of who finally became the nominee, we'd be out on the road to help capture the mainland Puerto Rican vote---and as U.S. citizens, Puerto Ricans in the states do vote.

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Sen. Clinton is campaigning on behalf of the Obama Biden ticket this weekend in Ohio. Hillary will be making appearances in Akron and Elyria. Click here for more details.

Many of us in Texas hope that Hillary can make it back to Texas to work on areas that went heavily for her in the primary including the Rio Grande Valley/South Texas and El Paso areas. It is doubtful since we are not a battleground.

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The down-ticket races are following the lead of the presidential race -- and getting dirtier and dirtier by the day. Hare are the latest developments:

New Coleman Ad: Al Franken Is A Foul-Mouthed Clown
Wow, check out this new attack ad from Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), going after Al Franken's history of using curse words in public. "I'm Norm Coleman, and I approved this message because I thought it was important for you to see it," Coleman says somberly:

"How f______ shameless these people are," Franken says, in video from 2003 with bleeping added to cover up the curse words. "These people are so f______ shameless!"

Late Update: Franken spokeswoman Colleen Murray gave us this comment on the ad: "Norm Coleman says he wants you to see this because what he doesn't want you to see is his record of supporting George Bush nearly 90 percent of the time, selling out to the special interests, and ignoring Minnesota's middle class."

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Warrensville Heights Mayor Marcia Fudge, mentored in politics by the late U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, grabbed the inside track Thursday night to take over her seat.

Fudge won a landslide victory in a vote by Cuyahoga County Democratic Party officials to replace Tubbs Jones as the party's nominee on the Nov. 4 ballot for the 11th Congressional District.

The heavily Democratic district covers much of Cleveland's East Side and many eastern suburbs.

Fudge, 55, said she hoped the vote showed unity and consensus within the party as she heads toward the general election.

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Former congressman Louis Stokes is the guest on "Sound of Ideas" on Cleveland public radio station WCPN from now until 10:00 a.m. this morning, where he will talk about the unofficial screening committee he formed with Mayor Frank Jackson to make a "recommendation" to county party executive committee members about who they should select as a replacement to Stephanie Tubbs Jones on the November 4th congressional ballot. That vote will occur on Thursday, September 11th, at 7:30 p.m.

The committee has been criticized for excluding the press and public from their lengthy meeting on Monday, during which they heard from all eight candidates. After the meeting, the committee endorsed former Tubbs Jones Chief of Staff and current suburban mayor Marcia Fudge (D-Warrensville). The identity of the 19 members of the screening committee were not divulged prior to the making of the recommendation. [The members are listed here.]

UPDATE: Answers by the candidates to a 12-question issues questionnaire, submitted by several members of the executive committee, are available here and here. The call-in number for the show is (866) 578-0903.

2d UPDATE: Marilyn Karfield of the Cleveland Jewish News referred to criticism that the committee was not representative of the diversity of the district, which is 45% 40% white and has some 55,000 Jews. There wasn't a full listing of screening committee members, but it included six African-American ministers and several African-American elected officials. Karfield said there was one Jewish legislator.

Stokes came on the show and denied that the screening committee supplanted the official process of a vote by executive committee members who live in the 11th District, saying that their selection is only a recommendation and isn't binding on anyone.

3d UPDATE: Cleveland Councilman Mike Polensek is now on, emphasizing a meeting at party headquarters at 5:00 p.m. today at which Democratic Party ward leaders will interview and discuss the candidates. [He does not know whether the ward leaders will make a recommendation or not.] His view is that there should be a vetting process within the party, not just a recommendation by an ad hoc committee. Polensek also emphasized the importance of the district as being majority African-American but also having the most Jews of any congressional district in Ohio as well as a big concentration of Eastern Europeans and other ethnic groups. Stokes is back, emphasizing that his committee was not meant to preempt meetings by anyone else who wants to have one. Stokes admits that the process could have been done better ("we made some mistakes"), and that the committee could have been larger and more representative. He is emphasizing that everything had to happen quickly, and insists that he wasn't responsible for excluding the press.

4th UPDATE: Stokes said that there was some discussion after the candidate presentations and before the committee vote, but candidates weren't brought up -- he says it was a discussion just about the district. Stokes has no comment to a caller who implied that the committee was strong-arming the process to make sure a black person is elected, saying only that the comment is racist. Karfield brought up a lawsuit over the drawing of the 11th District that went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that it is constitutional to create a majority-black district to ensure that African Americans have some representation in Congress. Stokes emphasizes that he and Rep. Tubbs Jones were the only black members of Congress from Ohio ever.

5th UPDATE:The show is over. The second to last caller said that there should have been at least one white candidate among the eight candidates under consideration. Stokes pointed out that the committee didn't choose who decided to run, and emphasized that he and Rep. Tubbs Jones strove to represent all the residents of the district equally without regard to race. The last caller praised Stokes for showing leadership by convening the screening committee and essentially said that any faults in the vetting process are attributable to the suddenness and horrific timing of the loss, coming so soon before the election.

I am one of the members of the executive committee who will be voting tomorrow night. I agree with some of the criticisms of the Stokes/Jackson screening committee and feel that it's recommendation shouldn't be afforded as much weight as it would have received if the process were less hurried and more open. However, I feel like there is quite a lot of information available, considering the circumstances. I have read the questionnaire responses on issues by the candidates and have heard from a variety of people promoting one or another candidate. It is not an easy choice because a number of the candidates are very close on the issues and comparably strong on credentials. I don't feel bound by the committee's recommendation at all and don't see it as having an undue influence over my vote, although it is a factor.

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