Friends and colleagues—and many considered themselves both—were effusive in their praise for Stephanie Tubbs Jones.
Her democratic colleague Maxine Waters of California says Tubbs Jones was friends with everyone.
WATERS: It’s a great loss to the state of the Ohio, to the city of Cleveland, to the congress of the United States. And it’s going to take me awhile to get used to the fact that she is no longer with us.
Reactions came from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton—whom Tubbs Jones backed enthusiastically in the primaries. Republican Senator George Voinovich said in a statement that he always marveled at the astounding positivity with which she lived her life after facing such personal challenges. And, Republican Congressman Steve LaTourette said that while many think Republicans and Democrats never get along, she was his dear friend for more than 20 years.
In Cleveland, Councilman Roosevelt Coats said she was a trailblazer—not only as the first African American congresswoman from Ohio, but also as a rare African American judge.
COATS: And then she was the first and only black county prosecutor. And she took a risk there because there were some people who was really against her making that move.
As testament to her reach, Fox News reporter Chad Pergram tells us 130 staffers held a prayer vigil for Tubbs Jones in the basement of the capitol yesterday.