Edgar Herschler

Edgar Jacob Herschler (October 7, 1918 - February 5, 1990), popularly known as "Gov. Ed", was the Democratic governor of the usually Republican U.S. state of Wyoming from 1975 to 1987. Herschler built a personal appeal to voters based on charisma, a small-town background, and shrewd political maneuvering to such an extent that he was the only three-term governor in Wyoming history.

Herschler served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He received his law degree from the University of Wyoming at Laramie in 1949. He served in the Wyoming House of Representatives from 1959—1969. He was city attorney for Kemmerer as well as the prosecutor of his native Lincoln County in the Democratic southwestern corner of Wyoming. Herschler won his party's gubernatorial primary election and then defeated the Republican Dick Jones (1910-2008), a trucking executive from Cody and a former member of both houses of the state legislature, in the general election of 1974, amid a Democratic national landslide. Herschler polled 71,741 (55.9 percent) to Jones' 56,645 (44.1 percent)."Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections, p. 1538] Jones had the backing of outgoing Governor Stanley K. Hathaway.

Herschler is best known for his call for "growth on our terms" during the 1970s energy boom which nearly doubled the Wyoming population in a decade. Coal mining began in earnest in the Powder River Basin during Herschler's first term, and severance tax revenue from this development provided funding for construction of modern highways, schools and other public infrastructure.

One of Herschler's aides was Richard Honaker, whom he appointed to head the indigent defender board. Hoanker served as a Democratic state representative from Rock Springs from 1987 to 1993. Honaker switched affiliation to the Republican Party in 1994. In 2007, U.S. President George W. Bush nominated him as one of three U.S. District Judges for Wyoming, but the appointment has been caught in a partisan dispute between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate.

Herschler's three-term feat will not be replicated unless the state's 1992 term limits statute for statewide elected officials were to be overturned. He narrowly won reelection in 1978 over former State Senator John C. Ostlund, then of Gillette and later from Cheyenne. Herschler received 69,972 (50.9 percent) to Ostlund's 67,595 (49.1 percent).

In 1982, Herschler handily defeated a third Republican, Casper independent oilman Warren A. Morton (1924-2002), a former Speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives, in another largely Democratic year nationally. Teh vote was 63-37 percent. Herschler chaired the Western Governors Conference during part of his tenure.

Republicans maintained control of both houses of the legislature during Herschler's administration except for the two-year period from 1975 to 1977, when Democrats controlled the Wyoming State Senate. The House Speaker at the start of Herschler's tenure was the conservative businessman and farmer-rancher Harold Hellbaum of Chugwater near Wheatland in Platte County, who served from 1975 to 1977.

Herschler and his wife, Casey, had two children. After he left the governorship, Herschler practiced law in Cheyenne.

References

* [http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=51d7ae3effb81010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e449a0ca9e3f1010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD National Governors Association info page for Edward Herschler] .
*Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. "Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978", Vol. 4. Westport, Connecticut: Meckler Books, 1978, 4 vols.
*The Council of State Governments: "The Governors of the American States, Commonwealths, and Territories 1900-1980" (1980)