A look back at Domenici’s life through the years.
1932
Born Pietro Vichi Domenici, one of five children born to Cherubino Domenici and Alda Vichi, two Italian immigrants who met and married in Albuquerque. Cherubino “Choppo” Domenici emigrated from Italy at age 13 to work in his uncle’s grocery store. He and his brother eventually bought the store, which later became Montezuma Wholesale Groceries.
1954
Domenici graduates from The University of New Mexico with a degree in education. While in school, he was a star pitcher for the Lobos baseball team, and the yearbook lists him as a member of the student Senate in 1954. Domenici pitched for the Albuquerque Dukes, a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers, but left to work as a math teacher at Albuquerque’s Garfield Junior High.
1958
After graduating from law school in Denver, Domenici moves back to Albuquerque to work as a lawyer. He married Nancy Burk that year. The pair would go on to have eight children together.
1966
Elected to the Albuquerque City Commission.
1967
Becomes chairman of the Albuquerque City Commission, which, under the city’s old form of government, was equivalent to being mayor.
1970
Loses bid for governor to Democrat Bruce King. Domenici never lost another race.
1972
Becomes New Mexico’s first Republican senator in 38 years. By the time he left Congress, he’d become the state’s longest-serving U.S. senator, re-elected in 1978, 1984, 1990, 1996 and 2002. While in office, he established a reputation as an expert on the federal budget and energy issues.
1980
Rises to national prominence after Republicans win control of the U.S. Senate and Republican Ronald Reagan becomes president. Domenici becomes chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.
1988
Is considered to become George H.W. Bush’s running mate in the presidential election. Dan Quayle is eventually chosen as the vice presidential nominee, and the Bush-Quayle ticket goes on to win the general election.
1995
Champions legislation to end the federal budget deficit in seven years. President Bill Clinton would later sign the bill, which became the Balanced
Budget Ac of 1997. Going against a leader in his own party, Domenici this year also opposed the “Contract with America” of then-House Speaker Newt Girich, R-Ga., because it called for what he considered unrealistic tax cuts.
2007
Announces he ill not seek re-election
because he is suffering from frontotemporal lobar degeneration, a progressive disease that in some forms can cause dysfunction in the parts of the brain important for organization, decision-making and control of mood and behavior. He says he is confident in his ability to serve the remaining 14 months of his term but doesn’t want to risk impairment over an additional six years in office.
2008
The Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health and Addition Equity Act passes as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, requiring group insurance plans to cover mental illnesses in the same manner as they cover physical ones. Domenici had worked for more than a decade on the legislation. The issue affected him personally: He had a daughter who suffered from atypical schizophrenia.
2009
Retires from the Senate. Succeeded by Rep. Tom Udall, a Democrat.
At the time of his retirement, Domenici was at the center of a controversy surrounding the dismissal of New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, who charged that Domenici and then-U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson pushed him to bring charges against Manny Aragon, who had been state Senate majority leader, to boost Wilson in her close 2006 re-election race.
An investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee in 2008 admonished Domenici for “the appearance of impropriety” in a phone call to Iglesias. But the committee said it found no substantial evidence that Domenici had attempted to influence an ongoing criminal investigation.
2013
Shocks the state by announcing that he had fathered a son out of wedlock in 1970s with the much younger daughter of one of his Senate colleagues. Domenici and Michelle Laxalt — who raised her son on her own — revealed the affair only after they learned someone was pitching a story about it to national media outlets. Their son, Adam Laxalt, now is attorney general of Nevada. When Domenici made the disclosure, critics pointed out that in the late 1990s, at the height of President Bill Clinton’s sex scandal, Domenici helped start a program for school students called “Character Counts.”
2017
Dies at age 85 at University of New Mexico Hospital from complications of abdominal surgery.