PROFILE / RISING POWER : Fazio Heads Democratic Bid to Win Redistricting Fights : The influential lawmaker says that, unlike 10 years ago, he won’t trample on GOP. It may get 3 of 7 new Calif. House seats.

Rep. Vic Fazio insists that he is not trying to step into the late Rep. Philip Burton’s shoes.

But it is Fazio who is going to pick up where Burton left off 10 years ago: as point man in the party’s effort to carve California into as many pro-Democratic congressional districts as possible. And the Golden State will be the big political winner in the 1990 census, adding six or seven seats to the 45 it already has.

Fazio also runs a party organization that is trying to help Democrats establish control of governorships and legislatures in other states that will pick up or lose congressional seats because of census reapportionment. The object: Elect more Democrats to the House.

The latter assignment reflects Fazio’s growing national stature in the Democratic Party. A Business Week poll of senior congressional staff aides from both parties rated him as one of the 10 most influential members of the House or Senate.

“If I had a machine to clone him, I would do it,” Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) said of Fazio. “He is the most effective member of Congress I ever met.”

As vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus, No. 5 among Democrats in the House leadership, Fazio is well placed to someday become the first House Speaker from California. At 47, he is young enough to wait his turn for the coveted post.

Fazio, who was first elected in 1978 as the U.S. representative from West Sacramento and the surrounding area, is a popular figure at home. Even though some of his constituents are not sure how to pronounce his name (it’s FAY-zee-oh), they like the way he brings home federal dollars and new water projects for his district.

To be sure, Fazio has his critics, some of whom maintain that he has managed to divert attention from a liberal voting record by bringing a steady stream of federal projects to his home district. “He takes care of his district, but people don’t realize the cost of the social programs he’s pushing,” said Martin Baughman, a Republican aide in the California Senate who is challenging Fazio in the November election. “We’re being mollified by trinkets.”

Recently, Fazio has been a designated hitter for his party on such sensitive national issues as congressional pay raises and ethics reform--issues that most lawmakers avoid like poison. Yet he gets a surprising amount of GOP applause as a fair fighter.

Ten years ago, nobody on the Republican side was talking that way about Burton, who rammed through the state Legislature a congressional redistricting plan that gave Democrats a 27-18 edge in House seats from California, substantially better than the party’s advantage in registered voters (50% to 39%). Mentioning Burton’s name still makes Republicans grimace.

California will redistrict all over again next year, but “the demographics won’t permit the approach that Phil took,” Fazio said. “We’ll be more accommodating to Republicans,” with at least three of a possible seven new House seats likely to go Republican. Among Democrats, he added, “there’s no mood for confrontation or an adversarial process.”

In one of his biggest setbacks, Fazio led the losing fight for a 51% pay raise for members of Congress and other high federal officials early in 1989. It was shot down in a barrage of public outrage.

Nevertheless, Fazio put together a new pay and ethics package that will raise House salaries to $124,400 a year in 1991 and provide annual cost-of-living increases in the future. Also, the legislation phases out honorariums, the speaking fees ranging up to $2,000 paid to members of Congress by special-interest groups.