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Sen. Pete Domenici's political career started with Albuquerque City Commission seat in 1966

By Maggie Shepard
Thursday, October 4, 2007

In his lifetime, Pietro Vichi Domenici went from grocery bagger to arm-weary baseball pitcher to U.S. senator.

Throughout his odyssey, he was simply known as Pete - the dependable, charming and sometimes cantankerous soul whose 36-year career in the U.S. Senate will make him the longest-serving senator in New Mexico history.

Born in 1932 to a large Roman Catholic family with Italian roots, Domenici was a well-known presence long before he won election to the Senate in 1972. He was a star athlete at St. Mary's High School and a pitcher for the University of New Mexico before a sore arm ended his dreams of pro baseball.

He entered politics in the 1960s, and for the next several decades became a near-staple for generations of New Mexicans who followed la politica.

That lifelong, first-name-only political life will start to wind down, when Domenici is expected to announce he will not run for re-election to the Senate in 2008.

Here's a glimpse at his life and some of his key political accomplishments:

• As a child, works at his family's grocery store near Downtown Albuquerque.

• Graduates from St. Mary's Catholic School in 1950 and enters the University of Albuquerque. Domenici later transfers to the University of New Mexico, where he completes his degree in education.

• Plays a stint as a pitcher for the city's minor league baseball team, the Albuquerque Dukes.

• Gives up baseball to pursue a law degree, which he achieves in 1958 from the University of Denver; he marries Nancy Burk shortly thereafter.

• Back in Albuquerque at age 33, Domenici is elected to the Albuquerque City Commission in 1966; he serves until 1970.

• Loses in a run for governor in 1970, falling to Democrat Bruce King.

• Wins the Senate seat in 1972, defeating state Rep. Jack Daniels with 54 percent of vote.

• Named to the Senate Budget Committee in 1973.

• In 1974, appointed to the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee - later renamed the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

• Struggles for re-election in 1978, garnering 53 percent of votes against then state Attorney General Toney Anaya. It's the last time Domenici is seriously challenged in a race.

• Maneuvers through Senate politics as a relative newcomer in 1978 to get a hotly opposed Inland Waterways Bill passed and signed by former President Carter. The bill put an extra tax on barge operators.

• Is appointed chair of the Budget Committee in 1981, a seat from which he wields immense power during the Reagan administration.

• In the early 1990s, Domenici works - as he does throughout his career - to add funding to the national laboratories, Sandia and Los Alamos, in New Mexico.

• Succeeds in getting insurance coverage for mental health patients in the Mental Health Parity law of 1996.

• Serves as principal architect of the 1997 balanced budget bill - the first in four decades - negotiated with former President Bill Clinton.

• Helps secure $661 million in relief in 2000 for the hundreds of Los Alamos residents affected by Cerro Grande Fire and $101 million to buy Baca Ranch, now called the Valles Caldera.

*Takes the chairmanship of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in 2003.

• Is honored with the dedication of the Pete V. Domenici Federal Courthouse in Downtown Albuquerque in 2004.

• Is key in the passage of the 2005 Energy Policy Act, which among $85 billion energy business subsidies included a $13 billion for nuclear energy as part of the bill's push to develop national energy options

• Casts his 13,000th vote in September 2006.

• In October of 2006, Domenici and U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, an Albuquerque Republican, make phone calls to then-New Mexico Attorney General David Iglesias, who was conducting an investigation into alleged corruption among key state Democrats. No charges were filed before the election. Iglesias was fired after the election and Domenici later became the subject of an ethics investigation. In March 2007, Domenici tells the Associated Press the scrutiny is the worst "hell" he has endured in his career.

• Announces an about-face on the war in Iraq, opposing President Bush's war policy in July 2007.

• Celebrates as the Senate approves a mental health bill in September that would put physical and mental health treatment on the same financial scale. The bill has yet to pass the House.