WASHINGTON, D.C.-The Washington, D.C. press secretary for U.S. Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-OH), a Warrensville Hts Democrat whose 11th Congressional District includes Cleveland's predominantly Black east side and Black pockets of Akron, a city some 35 miles south of Cleveland, has left her post to serve as an Ohio regional campaign press spokesperson for Obama for America, President Barack Obama's reelection campaign venue.

Laura Allen (pictured) told Cleveland Urban News.Com in a telephone interview yesterday from Washington, D.C. that she will begin working for the Obama campaign beginning next week and that Fudge has not found a replacement for her yet, and she said that she does not know what regional post she will be assigned to but that she has, in fact, joined the Obama 2012 campaign.

"I start next week," said Allen, who said also that she would be relocating to Columbus, Oh. this weekend.

U.S. Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-OH)

Ohio is a pivotal state where no Republican has won the White House without first winning Ohio and the last Democratic presidential candidate to do so was the late John F. Kennedy in 1960.

U.S. President Barack Obama

Obama, the first Black president of the United States of America, will square off in a general presidential election on November 6 with likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts.

While Allen was Fudge's Washington D.C. press secretary, Belinda Prinz, who is the congresswoman's 11th Congressional District press secretary out of the  Cleveland and Akron metropolitan areas, has not left her position and, like Allen,  is under no pressure to do so, sources say.

Reach Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and phone number: 216-932-3114.