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Rep. Walter (Wally) Herger [R-CA2]
U.S. Representative, California’s 2nd District

Photo of Herger
State:California [map]
District:2nd Congressional District [map]
Party:Republican
Birthday:May 20, 1945 / 64 years old

To contact Walter Herger, visit his official website. (Read our tips for communicating with Congress.) See the Project Vote Smart page for Herger for more biographical and issue information.

Official YouTube Feed
“Rep Herger Opposes Increasing the Debt Limit” - Feb 4, 2010 5:20 PM. Watch Video.
On the Floor
Latest Floor Video from MetaVid

Congressional Service

Walter Herger has represented California’s 2nd congressional district since 1987.

Below are the past and present terms in the Senate, House, and White House held by Walter Herger:

WhenRoleRepresenting
1987-2010
U.S. RepresentativeCalifornia’s 2nd
(was preceeded by Eugene Chappie)

Sponsorship Analysis

"Ideometer"Herger is a far-right Republican according to GovTrack's own analysis of bill sponsorship.

These labels come from the Political Spectrum statistical analysis that we have carried out. The statistical analysis puts members of Congress on a scale based on patterns of bill sponsorship, and is blind to party affiliation and the content of bills. From there, we have somewhat arbitrarily divided the Members of Congress into far-left/right, rank-and-file, and moderate (i.e. centrist). For each party, the most extreme 23% of Members of Congress are labeled far-left or -right. The most centrist 30% (i.e. those closest to the other party) are labeled moderate. The remaining 47% are labeled as rank-and-file.

"Leader-Follower Score"
Herger is a follower according to our statistical analysis of bills in this legislative session. Herger tends to cosponsors the bills of other Members of Congress who do not cosponsor Herger’s own bills. For more, see congressional statistics.

To compute the leader-follower score for Herger, we make a table that lists all other Members of Congress. Each row has the number bills sponsored by Herger and cosponsored by the other Member of Congress divided by the number of bills sponsored by the other Member of Congress and cosponsored by Herger.

This is a measure of who is following who. The higher the number, the more times others are cosponsoring Herger's bills without Herger returning the favor. We then take the mean of (the logorithms of) these ratios. Thanks to Joe Barillari for the idea.

Voting Record

Voting RecordWalter Herger missed 425 (3%) of 12677 votes since Jan 23, 1990. The graph to the left shows the number of missed votes over time. Click for a larger chart and a list of recent votes.

Money & Influence

The top campaign contribution to Herger in 2007-2008 was $16,900 from employees of Sierra Pacific Industries. Walter Herger’s net worth was between $3,046,010 and $12,166,000 in 2007, according to Herger’s mandated financial disclosure statements. For more information, see the Center for Responsive Politics’ page for Herger.

Committee Membership

Walter Herger sits on the following committees:

Bill Sponsorship & Cosponsorship

Walter Herger has sponsored 159 bills since Jan 3, 1989 of which 134 haven't made it out of committee and 11 were successfully enacted. Herger has co-sponsored 2159 bills during the same time period. (The count of enacted bills considers only bills actually sponsored by Herger and companion bills identified by CRS that were themselves enacted, but not if they were incorporated into other bills, as that information is not readily available.)

Some of Herger’s most recently sponsored bills include...

H.R. 3729: To amend section 31 of the Small Business Act with respect to awarding contract opportunities to qualified HUBZone small business concerns, and for other purposes.
H.Res. 883: Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that Members of the House receive the necessary cost information regarding health care reform legislation at least 72 hours before any vote on such legislation.
H.R. 689: To interchange the administrative jurisdiction of certain Federal lands between the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, and for other purposes.
H.R. 2899: California Catastrophic Wildfire Prevention and Community Protection Act
H.R. 853: Suzanne Gonzales Suicide Prevention Act of 2009

View All... (including bills from previous years)

Photo from the Congressional Pictorial Directory.