Oberstar Calls for Unity in Address to State DFL Convention by The Oberstar Campaign Appearing in www.oberstar.org on 2008-06-08. DFL Congressman Jim Oberstar delivered a rousing speech to delegates at the DFL State convention on Saturday morning, addressing his work in Congress and calling for Democrats to unite around presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama and work to elect Democrats across Minnesota. "This year, our Democratic Party is now led by a man who 50 years ago could not sit at a lunch counter,” Oberstar said about Obama to cheers from the audience. “Let’s elect Barack Obama to the presidency,” he shouted. Oberstar, Chair of the House Transportation Committee and Dean of Minnesota’s Congressional Delegation, spoke around the issues he has spent much of this year - and much of his career - talking about and working towards in his Committee. “I promised we would complete the unfinished agenda of the past 12 years,” Oberstar said, referring to the work of the Transportation Committee. He then listed a slew of recent accomplishments aimed at furthering his goal of modernizing our transportation infrastructure and fulfilling those promises. “I said we’re going to turn the lights on at the Department of Energy with solar power. Well, in December the lights will turn on with photo voltaic cells on the roof; they’ll reduce their energy costs [by] 90 percent,” Oberstar said. “We’re going to turn the lights of America on with solar power.” While Oberstar had no official DFL business in Rochester - he received a unanimous endorsement at his 8th District Convention last month - he was welcomed by delegates eager to celebrate Minnesota’s DFL Congressional Delegation: Reps. Jim Oberstar, Betty McCollum, Keith Ellison, Tim Walz, and Collin Peterson, and Senator Amy Klobuchar. Click here to read an article in the Star-Tribune on the speech.

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