Every car, train, bike and plane in Minnesota touches a piece of Jim Oberstar's legacy.
Thousands of miles of patched potholes and resurfaced roads. A statewide cat's cradle of bike trails. Massive new bridges, including the I-35W span across the Mississippi, rebuilt with millions of dollars in federal aid Oberstar marshaled and pushed through Congress in the days after the 2007 bridge collapse.
Minnesota's longest serving congressman carved his mark into the state's bedrock. He had a hand in so many projects that selecting a few to name for him has created a dilemma in the Eighth Congressional District on the Iron Range.
Two gleaming new airport terminals in Duluth and Hibbing — both built with funding he helped secure — remain nameless while a debate rages over which should bear the Oberstar name. Duluth's terminal was completed this year and Hibbing's, like much of Oberstar's legacy in Minnesota, is still under construction four years after the election that finally sent him home.
He oversaw billions of dollars in transportation projects across the nation. In his final two years in office alone, he steered more than $265 million in earmarks back to Minnesota. Duluth Mayor Don Ness, Oberstar's longtime campaign manager, recalls traveling the district with him, hearing a story for every community.
"What drove his passion was not the big number, or the billions of dollars spent, but understanding that it really did make a difference in people's lives," Ness said. "It made a difference in how safe the highway was that they took to work every day, how many deaths would occur because of a poor design of a roadway or the lack of maintenance of bridges … I think that's what made Jim special. His efforts were always grounded in trying to help people."
