Rep. Brad Sherman (D)

The congressman from the 27th District is Brad Sherman, a Democrat first elected in 1996. Sherman grew up in Monterey Park, in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. He started working on Democratic campaigns at age 6, licking stamps and stuffing envelopes for U.S. Rep. George Brown. He set up his own stamp-wholesaling firm at age 14. He graduated with high honors from the University of California at Los Angeles, worked as an accountant, then went to Harvard Law School. He came back to the Los Angeles area to practice tax law, and he represented the Philippines in its successful effort to seize the assets of deposed president Ferdinand Marcos.

In 1990, Sherman was elected from Los Angeles County to the state Board of Equalization, which is a sort of tax court. He was known as a stickler for detail, a “tax nerd,” as one former staffer said, who used the office with a keen scent for political advantage. He irritated cartoonists with a ruling that exempted artwork from the state tax but not illustrations. They took their revenge by setting up a website, the Sherman Gallery, where they vied in caricaturing the balding and bespectacled Sherman. In 1996, he moved his residence from Santa Monica to Sherman Oaks, where a U.S. House seat had opened. Both he and his Republican opponent, businessman Rich Sybert, were self-financers; Sherman spent $578,000 of his own money. And both stressed their moderation. Sherman ran against then House Speaker Newt Gingrich and the Republican Congress, but he also supported the death penalty, called for phasing out racial quotas and preferences, and favored tough measures on illegal immigration. Sybert stressed his independence from Gingrich as well as his support of abortion rights and environmental protections. Sherman won 49%-44%.

In the House, his voting record has been more moderate than those of most other Los Angeles County Democrats, and he has shown occasional independence from party leaders. In 2002, he voted for the use of force in Iraq, after initially backing a provision to urge more support from the United Nations. The House passed his amendment to require competitive bidding procedures for the procurement of oil from Iraq, but a conference committee later dropped it. He sought to limit the use of franked mailings by House committee chairmen.

On the Foreign Affairs Committee, Sherman chairs the Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade Subcommittee, where his priority is preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. He has sought tougher economic sanctions on Iran and companies that do business there.

One of the few certified public accountants in Congress, he also serves on the Financial Services Committee, where his experience has been useful in congressional attempts to unravel recent corporate accounting scandals. In 2008, he was an outspoken foe of the bill to bail out the financial-services industry, dubbing it “cash for trash.” As the most senior Democrat on the committee to oppose the bill, he criticized the “panic atmosphere” that surrounded the push for passage, which he said was unjustified by the facts. “I understand Wall Street without being part of Wall Street,” he said. When domestic-auto-company executives testified in favor of a proposed bailout for that industry in November 2008, Sherman got them to concede that they had all flown separately to Washington in private airplanes, a revelation that sparked a public backlash. In March 2009, he advocated a 70% surtax on all compensation exceeding $1 million for executives of financial institutions receiving large federal bailouts.

Sherman has won re-election easily, even after redistricting following the 2000 census gave him a district that was two-thirds new to him and 37% Hispanic. He has not had serious opposition. The area’s growing Hispanic population and ambitious redistricters in Sacramento could place him at risk in 2012, though he is confident in his role as a self-described “trouble maker.”