Tributes, tears in farewell to Domenici

LOS ALAMOS, Oct 31, 2008 (The Santa Fe New Mexican - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- SBUX | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- One of the first times that U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici came to this hilltop community to campaign in 1972, the signs around town with his name on it were placards that supporters strapped atop their cars.

They read: "People for Pete."

The signs hanging here Thursday, small plastic monuments to what New Mexico's senior senator has done in the ensuing decades for this town and its federally funded weapons laboratory, were just as simple.

They read: "Los Alamos County Welcomes Sen. Pete V. Domenici, October 30, 2008."

The banners were displayed by a town that truly has been welcoming the Republican senator -- and his Congressional muscle and money -- for decades.

Domenici was here for a day named in his honor, during what he said would be his final visit as a senator. Domenici announced last year he wouldn't seek re-election because of an incurable brain disease.

In many ways, his schedule for the morning was just as complex as it might have been during one of his first campaign forays here, before he did his untold deeds and helped secure the millions of dollars for Los Alamos National Laboratory that this well-to-do, Republican-leaning community couldn't have thrived without.

He stopped by a fire station. Dropped in at the airport. And he ate New Mexican food with about 100 people.

This trip was different from those of the past, however.

The White Rock fire station was being named in his honor. The airport event was to thank him for his work on a transfer of land next to the current landing strip, and the luncheon was a farewell by members of the community, friends and supporters.

"I think we will miss Sen. Domenici more than most people can even comprehend," state Rep. Jeannette Wallace, R-Los Alamos, said.

"He has done a lot for this community, not just the lab. He's just been an important part for so long. We'll miss him, and I think it will become more apparent every day how much we miss him until we can grow some seniority in some of our congresspeople, and that's going to take time," she said at the airport land transfer ceremony.

While much of Domenici's prowess came in negotiating the behind-the-scenes federal minutia that most New Mexicans won't ever see, the senator also helped change the physical appearance of the hilltop town.

"Without Sen. Domenici this would be quite a different place," Los Alamos County Administrator Max Baker said.

"The newer facilities, we can attribute a lot of that to him, the taxes and things that come because of the laboratory," he said. "This would be more like a 1950s sort of vintage kind of community."

Los Alamos, which gave birth to the world's first atomic bomb, was created in the wake of World War II's Manhattan Project. With its main street and one Starbucks, of course, it is no vintage community. But it is a town wondering where its future is headed.

During the luncheon for him at Fuller Lodge, Domenici briefly addressed concerns on the minds of many, given that four of the state's five Congressional seats are up for grabs in Tuesday's election and that the federal government is struggling with a budget crunch that could dramatically diminish funding to one of Northern New Mexico's economic engines.

"I can't, nor do I chose to try and give you an assessment of where Los Alamos is going in the next 10 years," Domenici told the group.

"I don't know. There are lots of positive signs around and there's lots of vulnerability. I don't say that to make news," he said. "I say that because you all must know it."

No matter what happens with the lab's budget, the town will still have its proponents of nuclear power.

Just like Domenici, retired lab scientist Joe Laddish is one.

He took a copy of Domenici's book, A Brighter Tomorrow: Fulfilling the Promise of Nuclear Energy to the luncheon, to have the senator sign it.

"He spells out in his book the issues we have to deal with to do it correctly," Laddish said, "and so he's my hero for that kind of thing."

During the lunch, well-wishers had a chance to write thank-you notes to Domenici. They were collected for him in a wooden box.

Nancy Bartlit teared up as she wrote hers.

She wanted to thank him for his work helping the group she co-founded, New Mexico Citizens for Clean Air and Water.

"The reason today that New Mexico's skies are protected the way they are," she said, "is because of the help we had with Sen. Domenici getting the Republican western senators to support the protection of our wilderness areas, including Bandelier."

The Los Alamos of the future -- no matter who is elected to replace Domenici -- will be undeniably different, she said.

"It's the passing of an era," she said.

Contact Kate Nash at 986-3036 or knash@sfnewmexican.com. Read her blog, Green Chile Chatter, at www.santafenewmexican.com.

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