Pete Domenici

Peter Vichi Domenici (born May 7, 1932) has served as a Republican U.S. Senator from New Mexico continuously since 1973. He was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, weighing 10 pounds, his father called him "Bocci", after the European game bocce ball.

One of five children, and the only son, of Italian immigrants, Pete worked in his father's grocery business after school. He graduated in 1950 from St. Mary's High School, Albuquerque. After gaining a degree in education at the University of New Mexico, 1954, he pitched a season for the Albuquerque Dukes, a farm club for the former Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team, but left baseball to teach math at Garfield Junior High in Albuquerque, 1955. Pete Domenici earned his law degree at the University of Denver (1958), and returned to practice law in Albuquerque.

In 1958 he married Nancy Burk. They have two sons and six daughters (Lisa, Peter, Nella, Claire, David, Nanette, and twins Paula & Helen).

Domenici started his political career by being elected to Albuquerque City Commission, 1966, then elected Commission Chairman (equivalent then to Mayor) in 1967. Before being elected he would meet a group of friends at a local Albuquerque coffee shop on a regular basis, and proceed to complain about local politics, his friends finally got tired of his ranting and said: "why don't you do something about it?"

In 1972, he became the first Republican in 38 years in New Mexico to be elected to U.S. Senate, after losing the race for Governor two years before. He was re-elected in 1978, 1984, 1990, 1996, and 2002. Domenici, has been in the Senate longer than any other New Mexican, and is Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development. He is also a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, U.S. Senate Budget Committee.

Senator Domenici is big proponent of nuclear energy, he has published two books on the subject: "A Brighter Tomorrow: Fulfilling the Promise of Nuclear Energy" (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004); and he edited "Advanced Nuclear Technologies – Hearing Before the Committee on Appropriations, U.S. Senate" (Collingdale, Pennsylvania: D I A N E Publishing Company, 1999).

External links

• Domenici's website