Clearly because they want to damage Stephen Sherrill's reelection prospects, two former aides of Mayor London Breed are confirming what many already suspected about her appointment of Sherrill to the Board of Supervisors a year and a half ago.There may still be some sour grapes on the parts of forme r London Breed aides Conor Johnston and Eric Kingsbury, who were both vying for an appointment to the Board of Supervisors at the end of 2024 when Breed was headed out the door and Supervisor Catherine Stefani was moving on to the State House and vacating her seat. Or they may have other reasons for taking this public now. But both men tell Mission Local this week that they personally heard Breed say that the reason she had to pick Stephen Sherrill to be District 2 supervisor was because she had something to gain from it via billionaire Michael Bloomberg — who, for whatever reason, called in his own favor and asked that she give Sherrill the job.Johnston — a well known local provocateur who lately appears to be campaigning for Scott Wiener for Congress or, at least, helping to campaign against Saikat Chakrabarti — gave an on-camera interview to Mission Local explaining his falling-out with Breed after working for her starting from the time that she ran for District 5 supervisor as an unknown back in 2012.The rumor spread widely in late November 2024 that Breed was considering appointing Johnston to Catherine Stefani's seat on the board, which was seen a defiant gesture at Daniel Lurie on her way out the door, given that Johnston was likely to be a thorn in the mayor's side. Instead, she went with Sherrill, a former aide to Bloomberg, who we knew had given money to Breed's reelection campaign, and whom Breed had, oddly, endorsed for president back in 2020.Now Johnston is saying that he personally spoke to Breed about the reasons for her decision, and regardless of the conflicted position he was in, given that he was also a potential appointee, he advised against it because her reasoning could be construed as illegal."I’m 50 years old and about to be out of a job; I need to think about my financial future," Johnston quotes Breed as saying at the time, adding that Bloomberg's team had plans to "set her up" after she left office and, she allegedly said, "I need to worry about how I’m going to pay for things.""At every point I pushed back," Johnston tells Mission Local. "I couldn’t believe she was saying those things, to be honest. It was very out of character. It wasn’t the person who I had worked with for the preceding 12 years."Johnston added that he went into a closed-door meeting with Breed on December 3, 2024 and said, "What you’re considering is potentially illegal, it’s certainly wrong and you can’t do it."The California Post — the recently launchd CA arm of the conservative New York Post — ran a similar story about these December 2024 exchanges that was leaked to them in February, without any direct quotes from Johnston or other sources. The Post noted Breed's six-month stint last year at a "policy academy" program at the Aspen Institute, a DC think tank, which had partnered with Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the fact that she gave a NY Times interview in January in which she talked about still seeking work, and how Mayor Daniel Lurie was taking credit for an upswing that in SF's fortunes that began under her tenure.Mission Local's Joe Eskenazi also delved into the "troubling allegations" about Sherrill's appointment back in March — adding the bizarre detail of a Cameo video congratulating Sherrill from none other than disgraced former Illionois governor Rod Blagojevich, paid for by a "political bomb-thrower" who could very well have been Johnston.But only now is Johnston telling the whole story on the record, directly implicating Breed in an alleged quid pro quo with Bloomberg. And Breed's former campaign manager Eric Kingsbury backs him up, saying he also heard Breed make a similar justification for why she was appointing Sherrill. (Kingsbury, also, was potentially in line for the supervisor job, and he says he's stayed quiet because he knew doing otherwise would seem like "sour grapes" on his part.)Sherrill issued a denial to the Post back in February saying he was only selected after a "rigorous vetting" process. And Breed has issued a fresh denial to Mission Local, saying, "I want to be very clear: Stephen Sherrill was appointed because I believed he was the best person for the role, based on his experience, qualifications, and ability to serve District 2 and the City effectively. He has proven to do so."Breed adds, "I don’t work for Mayor Bloomberg. And I have always made my own decisions."Johnston, in explaining why he was coming forward now, a little less than a month before the June 2 primary, tells Mission Local, "I would rather be disliked for telling the truth than liked for being complicit in something that I know is wrong." And, he adds, "I know things that voters in District 2 have a right to know and to consider."As Eskenazi noted earlier on Mission Local, the fact that Sherrill, a relatively rich person like many of his District 2 neighbors, called in a favor with Mike Bloomberg to land a job may not be much of a problem for voters in the district. And an attorney tells the publication that Breed probably has plausible deniability here, if any of this were to go to court.Running against Sherrill is Lori Brooke, who has an endorsement from the League of Pissed Off Voters, as well as others.Previously: Allegations Resurface That Supervisor Sherrill Got Appointed In Backroom Deal to Benefit London Breed ...read more read less