EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio — Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress and a strong critic of the Iraq war, died Wednesday, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Tubbs Jones, 58, died of a brain hemorrhage caused by an aneurysm that burst and left her with limited brain function, said Eileen Sheil, a spokeswoman for the Cleveland Clinic, which owns the Huron Hospital in East Cleveland, where Tubbs Jones died.
The liberal Democrat, first elected in 1998, suffered the hemorrhage while driving her car in Cleveland Heights on Tuesday night, said Dr. Gus Kious, president of Huron Hospital. A brain aneurysm is a bulge in an artery in the brain. It can leak or rupture, causing bleeding in the brain.
Tubbs Jones represented the heavily Democratic 11th District and chaired the ethics committee in the House.
She was the first black woman to serve on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, where she opposed President Bush’s tax cuts and his efforts to create personal accounts within Social Security.
Tubbs Jones was a staunch supporter of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton during the primaries and was to have been a superdelegate at next week’s Democratic National Convention in Denver.
She switched her backing to Sen. Barack Obama in June but said he could not win unless Clinton’s supporters rallied behind him.
She also said Obama should consider Clinton as a running mate.
Tubbs Jones was a passionate opponent of the Iraq war, voting in 2002 against authorizing the use of military force.
Just as the war was starting in March 2003, she was one of only 11 House members to oppose a resolution supporting U.S. troops in Iraq.
In 2005, Tubbs Jones opposed certifying President Bush’s re-election because of questionable electoral results in her home state.
Tubbs Jones was an outspoken, gregarious lawmaker who wore bright colors and displayed her congressional pin on a gold necklace. She was a fiery speaker who could inspire crowds at political rallies, as she did while introducing former President Clinton when he campaigned for his wife in January in suburban Cleveland.
The daughter of a skycap and a factory worker, she served as a Cuyahoga County judge and prosecutor before running for political office.
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