Fourth-generation rice farmer Doug LaMalfa, 50, of Richvale, currently in the middle of his first four-year term as a California State Senator from District 4, recently announced he is seeking election to the U.S. House of Representatives to replace William Walter “Wally” Herger, Jr., 66, of Chico, who is retiring after serving 26 years in Congress.

“Our longtime friend and Representative Wally Herger decided not to seek reelection to Congress. With his endorsement and support, I launched my campaign Thursday morning (Jan. 19),” LaMalfa said in an announcement he emailed Monday, Jan. 23.

By doing so, LaMalfa joins an ever more crowded political battlefield to match war chests, wits, words and deeds with two fellow Republicans — retired Air Force Col. Pete Stiglich, 58, of Cottonwood; businessman Gregory Cheadle, 55, of Happy Valley; and Democrat Jim Reed, a lawyer from Fall River who lost to Herger in 2010 — for a wide-open primary election this June.

Alomost immediately after LaMalfa announced, former California State Senator and dentist Sam Aanestad of Grass Valley said that he, too, is exploring whether to throw his hat into the same ring.

LaMalfa previously represented State Assembly District 2 until he was termed out of office in 2010, the same year he defeated Rick Keene for the District 4 State Senate seat vacated by Sam Aanestad, who also termed out.

“Like Sacramento, Washington, D.C., has an addiction to spending that threatens our strength as a nation,” LaMalfa’s emailed announcement states.

“The (federal) government has created a $15 trillion deficit and is borrowing over 43 cents for every dollar it spends,” said LaMalfa, a pro-Second Amendment, pro-life, pro-family, anti-tax conservative Republican interested in water issues, natural resources, property rights and down-sizing government.

“Business as usual will only make the problem worse,” he said.

“We need our rural, common-sense values represented in Washington, said LaMalfa, who has made his presence in the north state nearly ubiquitous while attended countless events.

“I embrace the importance and enjoy the personal contract with people in my district. When I do that, I win their trust. They open up to me on how I can best help them,” LaMalfa explained.

“What that results in is an increased level of trust and a lot of our legislation flows from local needs. It might be legislation on a local issue, helping a person who is having trouble dealing with a state agency or even helping someone obtain a local permit,” he added.

LaMalfa pledges that, if elected to Congress, he will “work to reduce the debt and balance the budget; reduce taxes so working families and small businesses can keep more of their hard-earned money; repeal unnecessary regulations that hamper our ability to create jobs; protect north state water rights and increase water storage throughout the state; and stand up for our conservative values of freedom, family, hard work and individual responsibility.”

Among numerous pieces of legislation that LaMalfa either sponsored, co-authored, supported or successfully defeated while working at the state level, some of those he takes the greatest pride in are the pieces regulating timber harvests and timber use, levee repair, gun ownership rights following natural disasters and the definition of “scientific collectors” engaged in endangered or threatened species studies.

In 2004, LaMalfa also worked relentlessly to help pass Senate Bill 899, authored by Charles S. “Chuck” Poochigian, which significantly altered workers compensation rates and regulations.

“If the legislature had not passed that bill, we were prepared to take it to the electorate as a ballot initiative,” LaMalfa noted.

When on the topic of legislation with LaMalfa, it is very easy to forget that he went into the political arena only recently, in 2002, to protect his family’s rice growing business and the livelihoods of many other farmers throughout California.

“I didn’t prepare myself for a career in politics. It was by necessity that I became a citizen legislator. I worked at a local level with various grower cooperatives on farm issues such as rice straw burning, land practices and water rights. It didn’t take me very long to figure out that people who had no idea what it takes to make a farm operate successfully were making the decisions for me, so I had to wake up and pay attention,” LaMalfa said.

Doug LaMalfa first learned about the business of farming by helping out with chores and listening to stories while sitting at the knees of his grandfather, Tony LaMalfa, and father Milton LaMalfa, who died in October 2008.

Milton LaMalfa was raised by his parents, Tony and Marge LaMalfa, on the farm that his Italian grandfather, Giuseppe LaMalfa, purchased in 1931.

Named by the USA Rice Federation as the 2008 Rice Farmer of the Year, Milton LaMalfa custom-farmed 1,800 acres of rice and seed rice, growing three or four different premium varieties of rice each year depending upon market factors and what consumers wanted. Over the years, often with the help of the University of California’s rice research program, the LaMalfa Rice Farms grew as many as 28 different varieties of rice, Doug LaMalfa said.

Operating as three primary entities — LaMalfa Farms, LaMalfa Farms Dryer and LaMalfa Seed — Doug LaMalfa said the vertically integrated farming operation can provide services in rice harvesting and hauling, laser leveling of land and custom harvest drying. Whether on the floor of the commodities market or the State Senate floor, LaMalfa claims he has produced results.

LaMalfa and his wife Jill have four children.