Minnesota's 8th district has a new congressman. Chip Cravaack just upset 18-term incumbent Jim Oberstar to be the first Republican to represent this district since the late 1940s. Cravaack beat Oberstar by just over 4,000 votes.
Many are wondering what this means for local and national bike trails and the rights of cyclists. Oberstar was the chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and he made many appearances at the National Bike Summit being he's an avid cyclist.
Doug McClellan (writing for Bicycle Retailer) wrote this about Oberstar:
“…[W]hichever way you spin it, bicyclists and the bicycling movement have lost a friend in Congress,” said Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists, in a blog posting after Oberstar’s defeat was confirmed Wednesday morning. “I’m not going to lie—I’m depressed.”
Clarke called Oberstar a “true champion of bicyclists’ issues in Congress,” saying that many federal cycling initiatives such as the Safe Routes to School Program, state bicycle coordinators, the requirement that state and federal officials include cyclists in their transportation planning, and the non-motorized pilot projects, started with him.
We hope that Cravaack can be as kind to us cyclists as Oberstar was.
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Comments
A “true champion of bicyclists"?!? Get real people, Oberstar was nothing more than a far-left typical union hack. Good riddance...
Way to spew the hate "Nobama". Entitled people like you who hate everything and whine about everything that are destroying our country. Thank you for your service Rep. Oberstar. I met you and heard you speak once a few years back and it was a great experience and you were inspirational. I'm depressed about Oberstar being ousted as well, it is just a sad representation of the anti-intellectual business-profit oriented culture we are turning into.
An 18-term congressman voted out of a district that is dominated by liberal people. Wow! This is a sign that conservative ideas are making sense to more folks. They understand that liberal ideas aren't working. Maybe we'll see some good conservative change that will make the eighth district become a place where its high school graduates won't leave after graduation. We need serious growth in this district! We can be a prosperous district!
THIS cyclist celebrates Oberstars ouster, the consumate career politician he is.
I, personally, do not feel the need to burden the non-cycling taxpayers of Minnesota...let alone the nation...to pay for the trails that I use.
Adrian, not sure where you are riding but most likely none of the trails around the state would exist for you to be riding on if it wasnt for taxpayer support. Perhaps the we taxpaying cyclists should just go back to clogging the roads we help fund too. You know, the roads you tell us to get off of. Frankly put, if the trails aren't built or supported, your choices for a safe fun ride are significantly diminished. And let's not forget the trails are not exclusively for cyclists. They're for joggers, walkers, kids, mom's pushing stollers, people walking their dogs. They're also a large part of why Minnesota has a great quality of life.
Karl, didn't write anything about telling cyclists to get off the roads, so apparently you made an assumption about me.
My guess would also be you make similar "assumptions" about the percentage of all taxpayers that actually use the trails for any activity.
Sounds, also, like you justify making ALL taxpayers...yes, including those that do not even live in Minnesota...pay for trails that only a percentage use by falling back on the cliched "quality of life" argument. And there simply is no justification for it.
As a cyclist who's ridden (mostly commuting) about 2,000 miles a year, I'm always miffed at the millions of dollars spent on trails used by only a few people, mostly on weekends. They are a luxury that we cannot afford. Snowmobilers pay for their own trails. Cyclists who want to ride on trails should do the same.
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