Vic Fazio

Victor Fazio
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 3rd district
In office 1979 – 1999
Preceded by	Robert Leggett
Succeeded by	Doug Ose
Personal details
Political party	Democratic

Victor Herbert Fazio, Jr. usually known as Vic Fazio (born October 11 1942) is a former Democratic congressman from California.

Born to an Italian-American family [1] in Winchester, Massachusetts, Fazio graduated from Williston Academy in Easthampton, Massachusetts in 1961. He earned a B.A. from Union College in Schenectady, New York in 1965, and did graduate work at California State University in Sacramento, California from 1969 to 1972. He was a congressional and legislative consultant from 1966 to 1975, during which time he co-founded California Journal magazine in 1970. He served on the Sacramento County Charter Commission from 1972 to 1974, on the Sacramento County Planning Commission in 1975, and as a member of the California State Assembly from 1975 to 1978.

Fazio was a delegate to California state Democratic conventions in 1976 and 1978, and was a delegate to Democratic National Conventions of 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996. He was elected as a Democrat to the 96th and to the nine succeeding Congresses (January 3 1979 to January 3 1999). He represented California's 4th congressional district from 1979 to 1993 and California's 3rd congressional district from 1993 to 1999. He did not run for re-election for the 106th Congress in 1998.

As congressman, he lobbied to set aside area as a wildlife refuge below the I-80 overpass between Davis and Sacramento. His efforts led to the establishment of the Vic Fazio Wildlife Refuge, dedicated in 1997 by President Bill Clinton. The region is in Yolo County and is known to locals as the 'Yolo Bypass,' a seasonal wetlands generated by controlled fall, winter and spring flooding. The refuge provides valuable winter habitat for waterfowl and shorebirds. It is additionally used as a Pacific Flyway stop-over by migrant waterfowl and shorebirds during fall and spring migrations, and can be accessed for visitation by an auto tour route.

Fazio won his first seven terms without serious difficulty, but his district was made measurably more rural and Republican after the 1990s round of redistricting. He only won 51 percent of the vote in 1992 against an unknown Republican who spent almost no money. In 1994, he was nearly defeated, winning by only three percentage points. The close margin led him to announce during his successful reelection bid in 1996 that he would not run again in 1998.

Fazio currently works in the Washington office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and sits on the board of Northrop Grumman.

External links

• United States Congress. "Vic Fazio (id: F000053)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.