HARRISBURG - In the 1990s, State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo created a secret economic-development fund, fueled by money from New Jersey commuters, that raised tens of millions of dollars for projects in Philadelphia.
Nearly two dozen community organizations, business projects and nonprofits in the city benefited. But so did the preschool his children had attended.
That was the classic Fumo way: Help Philadelphia, but along the way take care of people and projects near and dear to him.
It is, even his staunchest critics acknowledge, a brand of politics that few others in either Philadelphia or Harrisburg could have pulled off so deftly and effectively, year after year, for three decades. Fumo's aggressive, swashbuckling style in many ways harked back to a different era, one in which getting the deal sealed was paramount - no matter how messy.
And in Philadelphia's case, it paid major dividends: Over the years, Fumo boasted, he got a legislature hostile to the city to fork over $8 billion.
"Sen. Fumo has been important to every big Philadelphia project for almost three decades," said former Mayor John F. Street, who rattled off a long list of examples, including the Convention Center and the city's new stadiums.
"It will be a long time before anyone in Harrisburg achieves the kind of prominence and raw power enjoyed by Sen. Fumo," Street added. "In many ways, it's the end of an era in Harrisburg."
The depth and breadth of Fumo's influence was vast and breathtaking.
Over time, he expanded his political sphere to exert control over the election of city judges, City Council members, Democratic City Committee members, and ward leaders. His power base also included a slew of state and city boards, as well as quasi-governmental boards and nonprofits.
And he was the man mayors and governors had to court to guarantee their agenda in the legislature. Until his indictment last February, he was the ranking Democrat on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee - and for years was among the few legislators who handcrafted Pennsylvania's operating budget.
He used that power with a vengeance. For projects large and small, Fumo helped bring the money home. Neighborhood improvements in the Italian Market, new helicopters for city police, a hospice for AIDS patients, a court for women seeking protection from abuse: All won with help from Fumo.
