Sam Farr: “I remember Bob Matsui from younger days. We were all Sacramentons. I was newly married. Shary and I went to Sacramento…”

“I remember Bob Matsui from younger days. We were all Sacramentons. I was newly married. Shary and I went to Sacramento to work in California State politics. And there in Sacramento was this new enthusiastic political community rising because California had just amended its constitution to set the legislature to hire full-time staff, and so it was a can-do city. And in the midst of this was this young graduate from the University of California who was a big champion of Berkeley and the Cal Bears, and he chose to run for city council. And a wonderful staff member named Steve Thompson introduced Bob to everybody, and Steve was a staff member and active in Democratic clubs and political social life. My wife, Shary, was working for John Moss, who was the predecessor to Bob Matsui. He was the Congressman at the time; and when John Moss retired, the city Democrats were split over who to support for that seat: the mayor, Phil Isenberg, a great popular person in Sacramento; or the young Bob Matsui. And it was a raucous grass roots primary battle. Bob won, and as they say, the rest is history. It is a shock that Bob is gone. He was too young, too talented, too much going for him as a new grandfather to have been taken from us. As Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, he raised a record amount of money for the congressional Democrats.”