YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Jim Traficant will certainly be remembered for his fiery one-minute speeches in Congress and his commitment to always standup for the little guy.

But a long-time friend and former employee of Traficant's says there's evidence of what the ex-Congressman accomplished throughout the Valley.

“A testament to his years in Congress is all the things we have here now. The Covelli Centre, two federal court houses, the air base. None of that would have been here today if it wasn't for his tenure in Congress. And I believe he will be remembered for his accomplishments more than the infamous side of him with the trial that took place in Cleveland," said Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti.

And another of those who has fond memories of the former Congressman is 21 News political analyst Dr. Williams Binning.

Binning says he and Traficant got off to a rocky start because Binning was serving as Republican Party chairman when Traficant was running for Mahoning County sheriff and later Congress, but they soon became allies.

"Over the years, we became closer and became allies. I worked for the Voinovich administration and Jim and I worked together on a number of projects; the defense accounting effort. I was one of his appointees to the arena board when he got the money to build the convention center for which he has gotten little credit so far," Binning said.