Brad Sherman

The redrawn 30th was more Sherman's district than Berman's so Sherman retained about 60% of his former territory, while Berman kept 20% of his former voters.

Bradley James Sherman (born October 24, 1954) is an American accountant and politician serving as the U.S. representative for California's 32nd congressional district.

He received a B.A. in political science from University of California, Los Angeles, in 1974, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1979.

He is a Certified Public Accountant who worked at one of the nations' big-four CPA firms.

As part of his work there, he helped represent the Philippine government under Corazon Aquino in a successful effort to seize assets of deposed president Ferdinand Marcos.

Sherman was an instructor at Harvard Law School's International Tax Program.

Sherman served on the California State Board of Equalization from 1991 to 1996.

He chaired the board from 1991 to 1995.

It was reported that the campaign for the Board of Equalization involved numerous attacks.

Claude Parrish, Sherman's opponent, said that an attorney general candidate declined to endorse Sherman due to a post on the state's elected tax appeals board.

Sherman replied, calling it "one of the most outrageous hit pieces in contemporary California political history".

In 1994, incumbent Democratic U.S. Representative Anthony C. Beilenson of California's 24th congressional district barely survived the Republican Revolution, winning reelection by a two-point margin, by far the worst election performance of his career.

In the general election, he defeated Republican nominee Rich Sybert (also the 1994 nominee), 49%–44%.

He has not faced another contest nearly that close since.

In 1996, Beilenson decided to retire.

Sherman ran for the seat and won the seven-candidate Democratic primary with 54% of the vote.

First elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1996, Sherman is serving his 12th term in Congress.

He is a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Sherman has held over 160 Town Hall meetings since being elected to Congress.

A member of the Democratic Party, he first entered Congress in 1997; Sherman represented California's 24th congressional district for three terms, California's 27th congressional district for five terms, and California's 30th congressional district for five terms.

His district is in the San Fernando Valley, in Los Angeles County, as well as the eastern part of the Simi Hills in Ventura County.

Sherman was born in Los Angeles, the son of Lane (from the Philadelphia area) and Maurice Hyman Sherman (from Indiana).

His parents were both of Russian Jewish descent.

He attended Mark Keppel High School and Corona del Mar High School.

Serving on the House Budget Committee in 1997, Sherman authored the Sherman Amendment to the Budget Resolution, providing an additional $700 million for the acquisition of environmentally important lands in FY 1998.

In 1998, he was reelected with 57% of the vote.

Since then, he has been reelected every two years with at least 62%.

Redistricting following the 2010 census drew the homes of Sherman and fellow Democrat Howard Berman, who had previously represented the 28th district, into the 30th district.

Sherman voted with President Joe Biden's stated position 100% of the time in the 117th Congress, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis.

On June 5, 2012, Sherman faced Berman in the primary for the 30th district.

Sherman finished first, leading 42% to 32%.

Due to California's new election system, which put the two candidates who received the most votes in the primary against each other, regardless of party, the two faced each other again in the general election.

Neither candidate was endorsed by the state Democratic Party.

Berman was the more established candidate.

He was endorsed by over 20 congressmen, including party leaders Steny Hoyer and Xavier Becerra, sitting Governor Jerry Brown, sitting Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the state's two U.S. senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein.

He was endorsed by ten Republican congressmen from California: David Dreier, Wally Herger, Dan Lungren, Elton Gallegly, Buck McKeon, Ed Royce, Jerry Lewis, Ken Calvert, Mary Bono Mack and Darrell Issa.

He was endorsed by two Republican U.S. senators, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, and by Independent U.S. senator Joe Lieberman.

Sherman was endorsed by then-lieutenant governor (and future governor) Gavin Newsom, former president Bill Clinton, and former Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis.

In the general election, Sherman defeated Berman, 60%–40%.

In the Washingtonian's 2012 anonymous survey of congressional staff, Sherman was named the second-meanest member of the House, after Sheila Jackson Lee.