Former Rep. Vic Fazio, Sacramento’s voice in Congress for 20 years, dies at 79

Vic Fazio, a powerful congressman who represented the Sacramento area in Washington for 20 years and became known as a Democratic stalwart who could work with Republicans, has died. He was 79.

A former state assemblyman and Sacramento County planning commissioner, Fazio was a Democrat who represented West Sacramento and much of Yolo County in the House of Representatives, ascending into leadership roles that earned him the nickname “Mr. Goodwrench.”

“Vic was suffering from cancer and died at home surrounded by his family,” said a statement released late Wednesday by a member of his congressional staff. Fazio was living in Arlington, Va.

Tributes poured in from Democratic members of Congress.

“Vic was a champion of our region, our residents and a powerful advocate for everyday Americans,” Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, said.

“My late husband, Bob Matsui, and I considered Vic a close friend for over 30 years. He worked to make our country a better place with his civility and ability to find common ground,” she continued. “His decades of service leave behind an extraordinary legacy, and his presence will continue to live on in all those who knew him. My prayers are with the entire Fazio family during this difficult time.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said: “California, the Congress and the country have lost a dedicated public servant.”

“He was a great member of Congress and a wonderful friend to me during my time in the CA Legislature and Congress,” tweeted Rep. Mike Thompson, a California Democrat. “My thoughts go out to his friends and family during this dark time.”

Fazio was a member of the powerful House Appropriations and Armed Services committees and was known as someone who could deliver government projects for the area, from a multimillion-dollar environmental institute at UC Davis to a job-training center in Sacramento’s hardscrabble Del Paso Heights neighborhood. Among his accomplishments was federal money for a new bridge in West Sacramento’s industrial area.

‘Legacy’ at Vic Fazio wildlife refuge

Some environmentalists thought he fell short at times, criticizing him for helping to postpone a ban on a controversial pesticide in his final days in Congress, in 1998. But others gave him high marks on the environment, and he worked to get 3,700 acres of wetlands west of Sacramento protected as a refuge. In 1997 then-President Bill Clinton came to the area to dedicate the Vic Fazio Yolo Wildlife Area on the Yolo Bypass near I-80.

“That was his legacy,” said V. John White, a longtime Sacramento legislative staffer who worked occasionally with Fazio.

“He was a classic legislator. He was a Democrat but he had good relationships across the aisle,” White said.

A Massachusetts native, Victor Herbert Fazio Jr. was a rising star in Washington during the 1990s. He rose to become the third-ranking Democrat in the House, and when he left Congress in 1999, was mentioned prominently for a senior White House position.

Fazio was best known on Capitol Hill for his collegial, low-key style at a time when the House was not the polarized body it is now.

That style, though, may have hurt, because he chaired the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 1994, the year Republicans stunned the political world by winning control of the House for the first time in 40 years.

Fazio’s job was primarily to raise money and shape the party’s message, but voter dissatisfaction with President Bill Clinton was impossible to overcome.

Fazio was chosen in 1995 as the party’s House caucus chairman, though, defeating Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md. The position put Fazio on the ladder to someday become House Democratic leader or even speaker.

Fazio didn’t always get what he wanted. When McClellan Air Force Base was scheduled for shutdown in the late 1990s, he persuaded the Clinton administration to give McClellan a shot at keeping the base open as a privately run aircraft maintenance facility.

The Pentagon set up a bidding war between McClellan and two bases in Utah and Texas; the jobs eventually went to Texas. But Fazio secured funding that helped convert the base into a business park.

Still, his bipartisan style often served the region well. White said Fazio’s close partnership with Rep. Jerry Lewis, a California Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, enabled the state to procure dollars from Washington.

“The two of them were the go-to guys ... to get things for California,” White said. Lewis died last summer.

Final speech in Clinton impeachment

Fazio ended his congressional career on a down note. His last speech on the House floor, on Dec. 18, 1998, came as the House was debating the impeachment of Clinton over his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Fazio called the president “reckless” but urged Republicans to give up on impeachment.

“It’s not the way you want to leave, not the kind of day you want to be the last of your career, but that’s the way it is, unfortunately,” he said afterward. The House impeached Clinton but the Senate acquitted him.

Soon after leaving Congress, Fazio went to work in a Washington public relations firm led by a former Republican congressman, Vin Weber. He later joined the Washington office of the prestigious Akin Gump Strauss Hauer Feld law firm. For several years he was named to the annual list of “top lobbyists” by The Hill, a newspaper serving D.C. insiders.

He retired from Akin Gump in 2020.

His wife Judy died in 2015. Two years later, Fazio married Kathy Sawyer, a retired Washington Post journalist.

He is also survived by his daughter Dana Fazio Lawrie and her husband Scott; his stepchildren Kevin and Kristie Kern, and his grandchildren Kendra, Karly, Keira and Peyton. Another daughter, Anne Noel Fazio, died in 1995.

Arrangements for a memorial service haven’t been finalized.

This story was originally published March 16, 2022 at 5:28 PM.