Francisco's greatest investment may have been in the future of his own community. The finest evidence of that investment is not found in an old hockey record book, a client portfolio or a Hall of Fame plaque. It can be heard inside the Heritage Sports Center on a winter afternoon.
Jim Oberstar understood that roads connected workers to jobs, airports connected employers to markets, ports connected Minnesota resources to the world and research connected traditional industries to new possibilities -- that northern Minnesota could remain strong only if it remained connected.
Oberstar approached Congress differently. He understood it as machinery requiring relationships, technical credibility, negotiation and committee leverage rather than ideological performance.