The FBI is purportedly looking into allegations that former Mayor London Breed appointed District 2 supervisor Stephen Sherrill with the hopes of landing a new job at the hands of Sherrill’s former boss and Breed’s political financier, Michael Bloomberg. But those allegations don’t appear to be making waves among district residents getting ready to decide whether Sherrill gets to keep his seat.
While the news has raised eyebrows among political insiders, for most locals it does not appear to be a disqualifying factor in the June 2 race.
Mission Local spoke to over a dozen residents in District 2, which covers the Marina, Presidio, Pacific Heights, and Cow Hollow. Most were only vaguely aware, at best, that an election for District 2 supervisor was scheduled for June 2, let alone the controversy surrounding Sherrill’s appointment.
“I would like to tell you that the entire district is up in arms. It’s really only the people paying attention,” said Daniela Kirshenbaum, a writer who lives in Pacific Heights and supports Sherrill’s competitor, longtime neighborhood organizer Lori Brooke.
“I don’t know that we’re going to have a Great Highway-level of resistance about this,” Kirshenbaum added, in reference to the political upheaval in the Sunset following 2024’s vote to permanently close the coastal road to cars. But, she said, “I kind of hope we do.”
Breed’s last decision as outgoing mayor was to appoint a District 2 supervisor to replace Catherine Stefani, whose seat was vacated when she was elected to the State Assembly.
Last week, two former staffers went on the record for the first time alleging that Breed overtly appointed Sherrill as a favor to Bloomberg with the hope that the appointment would help her get a job after leaving City Hall.
Breed denied the allegations, and there has not been any political fallout yet. Former supervisor Aaron Peskin sent a letter to the city’s new inspector general asking her to “open an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the appointment of Stephen Sherrill,” but little else. Mayor Daniel Lurie has ignored requests to comment on the matter.
For Erin Roach, president of the Marina Community Association, the allegations “just came off as kind of mean and petty, versus a real blow to his character.”
When reached for comment by Mission Local last week, Sherrill did not directly address the controversy. “The appointment process entailed rigorous vetting, interviews, and community input,” he wrote.
For Lisa Jacobs, a District 2 resident who supports Sherrill, the allegations do not necessarily reflect poorly on Sherrill. “I think it would be unfair to color him with London Breed’s poor decision making processes,” she said.
Plus, that’s just the “reality of politics,” District 2 resident David Carr added. “I’m sure those things happen a lot in many different political arenas on a day to day basis.”
Nevertheless, Brooke has been quick to try and capitalize on the story. She’s already designed a flyer with choice quotes from the articles that covered the allegations, and put out a video advertisement that says “Sherrill was appointed by Mayor London Breed in a corrupt backroom deal.”
It could sway some voters — a couple people that Mission Local spoke to about the story said that it may influence their decision.
“I would definitely go for Lori knowing that he got a handout,” Karim Mahmoud said. Though, for him, the larger influence was that he met and spoke to Brooke in person at a farmer’s market.
“I was like, ‘Oh, I’m probably not gonna vote, blah, blah, blah,’ but then she spoke to me a little bit about what’s going on, and I think she’s trying to do good based on my conversation with her and she’s out here grinding for that position,” he said.
Sherrill has been getting out there, too — another passerby Mission Local spoke with said they had run into him around the neighborhood, and teachers at Sherman Elementary School remembered that he had shown up to their picket line when they were on strike.
Roach, who is not taking a position in the race, said that both candidates have been very present in the neighborhood. Sherrill, she said, has “really has proven himself as someone who gets out there and deals with people directly” and Brooke, she added, has been “a super active person in this community for a super long time.” Most recently, Brooke supported Roach and other residents who protested the 25-story Marina Safeway development proposal, and their call for a Safeway boycott.
Sherrill, for his part, on Monday said he wasn’t surprised that most District 2 voters didn’t seem to care a lot about how he got appointed. “Voters are smart enough to know the difference between someone playing politics and someone doing the work,” he said, “which is what I’ll keep doing every single day.”