Jim Oberstar

James Louis Oberstar (September 10, 1934 – May 3, 2014) was an American politician who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 2011.

A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, he represented northeastern MN's 8th congressional district, which included the cities of Duluth, Brainerd, Grand Rapids, International Falls, and Hibbing.

Oberstar graduated from Chisholm High School in 1952 and went on to the College of St. Thomas (now the University of St. Thomas) in St. Paul, Minnesota where he received his B.A. degree in 1956.

He received a master's degree in European Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium in 1957, with further study at Université Laval in Sainte-Foy, Quebec, Canada and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

He spent four years as a civilian language teacher in the United States Marine Corps, teaching English to Haitian military personnel and French to American Marine officers and noncommissioned officers.

He served on the staff of Minnesota's 8th District U.S. Representative John Blatnik for 12 years, from 1963 to 1974, rising to chief of staff.

In 1965, Oberstar helped create the Economic Development Administration, the only federal agency devoted to the creation and retention of jobs in economically distressed American communities.

He was also the administrator of the Committee on Public Works for the U.S. House of Representatives from 1971 to 1974.

Oberstar was first elected as a Democrat to the 94th Congress and was reelected to 17 succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1975, to January 3, 2011.

He was an internationally recognized expert on aviation and aviation safety.

He served on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee during his entire time in the House.

(His predecessor Blatnik had chaired the committee during his last two terms in Congress, known as the Public Works Committee, with Oberstar as staff administrator).

He was also a member of the President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism.

Oberstar was a strong supporter of the Duluth-based aircraft manufacturer Cirrus Aircraft and even helped bring the company to Minnesota in 1994 from its first home in Baraboo, Wisconsin.

That same year, he assisted in passing the General Aviation Revitalization Act, which was said to have reinvigorated the general aviation industry nationwide.

An avid cyclist, Oberstar championed the creation of trails for cycling and hiking to promote active lifestyles.

In 2004, Oberstar led the opposition to the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004, a bill that established a regulatory framework for private suborbital spaceflight, arguing that the bill did not sufficiently safeguard passenger and crew safety.

"I do not want to see people dead from a space experiment, and then the federal government comes in to regulate".

During his tenure in Congress, Oberstar held leadership positions on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, was House Democratic At-Large Whip, and was a member of the Executive Committee of the Democratic Study Group.

He also served on the International Relations Committee.

He was co-chair of the Great Lakes Task Force and was a member of the Upper Mississippi Task Force and the Democratic Homeland Security Task Force.

He co-chaired the Congressional Travel and Tourism Caucus and was a member of the following caucuses: the Bike Caucus; the Caucus for Sustainable Development; the Congressional Caucus on Global Road Safety; the Congressional Human Rights Caucus; the Congressional Steel Caucus; the Medical Technology Caucus; the Mississippi River Caucus; the Native American Caucus and the Renewable Energy Caucus.

In 2005, he authored, co-sponsored, and helped to pass the SAFETEA-LU act, a $295 billion program that funds transportation infrastructure, including highways, bridges, and public transportation, such as subways, buses, and passenger ferries and which includes the Safe Routes to Schools program.

Along with John Conyers, in April 2006, Oberstar brought an action against George W. Bush and others alleging violations of the U.S. Constitution in the passing of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.

The case, (Conyers v. Bush), was ultimately dismissed.

Within days after the collapse of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge, Oberstar introduced and succeeded in passing legislation to appropriate $250 million to the Minnesota Department of Transportation to quickly build a replacement bridge.

He was chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee from 2007 to 2011, and ranking minority member before that.

At the 2007 BikeWalk California conference and other bicycling conferences, Oberstar advocated converting the U.S.'s transportation system "from a hydrocarbon-based system to a carbohydrate-based system."

Oberstar generally had a liberal voting record but opposed abortion and gun control.

The latter stand was fairly common among DFLers outside the Twin Cities, as Minnesota is a "pioneer state" with a long hunting and fishing tradition.

Oberstar was the co-chairman of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, along with Republican Chris Smith of New Jersey.

In 2007, Oberstar was one of 16 Democrats who voted against federal funding for stem cell research.

In 2009, Oberstar received the Tony Jannus Award for distinguished leadership in commercial aviation.

In November 2010, he was defeated by a margin of 4,407 votes by Republican Chip Cravaack.

He is the longest-serving United States House of Representatives member from Minnesota.

Oberstar was born in Chisholm, Minnesota, and on his deathbed, he still owned his original family home in Chisholm.

His father Louis, of German ancestry, was an iron ore miner and the first card-carrying member of the United Steelworkers (USW) on the Iron Range of Minnesota.

Oberstar also has Slovenian ancestry.

He was rated the third most liberal member of the Minnesota delegation in the 109th Congress, scoring 13% conservative by a conservative group and 86% progressive by a liberal group.

Minnesota Congressional Districts shows the scores for the entire delegation.