Bradley James Sherman (born October 24, 1954) is an American accountant and politician serving as the U.S. representative for California's 32nd congressional district. A member of the Democratic Party, he first entered Congress in 1997. Sherman represented California's 24th congressional district for three terms, California's 27th congressional district for five terms, and California's 30th congressional district for five terms. His district includes parts of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County and Simi Valley in Ventura County.
Early life, education, and early career Sherman was born in Los Angeles, the son of Lane (from the Philadelphia area) and Maurice Hyman Sherman (from Indiana). His parents were both of Ukrainian Jewish descent. He attended Mark Keppel High School and Corona del Mar High School. He received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1974, and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1979. He is a Certified Public Accountant who worked at one of the nations' Big Four accounting firms. As part of his work there, he helped represent the Philippine government under Corazon Aquino in a successful effort to seize assets of deposed president Ferdinand Marcos. Sherman was an instructor at Harvard Law School's International Tax Program.
Board of Equalization (1991–1997) Sherman served on the California State Board of Equalization from 1991 to 1997. He chaired the Board from 1991 to 1995.
The 1990 campaign for the Board seat involved numerous attacks. Claude Parrish, Sherman's Republican opponent, said that Arlo Smith, the (ultimately unsuccessful) Democratic nominee for attorney general, had declined to endorse Sherman for the Board seat. Sherman called it "one of the most outrageous hit pieces in contemporary California political history".
In turn, Sherman claimed that Parrish's ice cream company had been shut down in 1985 for failure to pay state income taxes. However, Parrish said that he had actually sold the company in 1983, just before its business license was suspended for a month by the state Franchise Tax Board. Sherman said that he relied on public records in making his allegations. Besides, Sherman said, the 1983 suspension could only have occurred because of previous tax delinquencies.
Sherman was re-elected to the Board of Equalization in 1994, but resigned in January 1997 to be sworn in to Congress.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
In 1994, incumbent Democratic U.S. representative Anthony C. Beilenson of California's 24th congressional district barely survived the Republican Revolution, winning re-election by a two-point margin, by far the worst election performance of his career. In 1996, Beilenson decided to retire.
Sherman then ran for the seat, and won the seven-candidate Democratic primary with 54% of the vote. In the general election, he defeated Republican nominee Rich Sybert (also the 1994 nominee), 49%–44%. He has not faced another contest nearly that close since. In 1998, he was reelected with 57% of the vote. Since then, he has been reelected every two years with at least 62%.
2012
Redistricting following the 2010 census drew the homes of Sherman and fellow Democrat Howard Berman, who had previously represented the 28th district, into the 30th district. The redrawn 30th was more Sherman's district than Berman's; Sherman retained about 60% of his former territory, while Berman kept 20% of his former voters. On June 5, 2012, Sherman faced Berman in the primary for the 30th district. Sherman finished first, leading 42% to 32%. Under California's new election system, which put the two candidates who received the most votes in the primary against each other, regardless of party, the two faced each other again in the general election. Neither candidate was endorsed by the state Democratic Party.
Berman was the more established candidate. He was endorsed by over 20 congressmen, including party leaders Steny Hoyer and Xavier Becerra, sitting Governor Jerry Brown, sitting Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and the state's two U.S. senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. He was endorsed by ten Republican congressmen from California: David Dreier, Wally Herger, Dan Lungren, Elton Gallegly, Buck McKeon, Ed Royce, Jerry Lewis, Ken Calvert, Mary Bono Mack, and Darrell Issa. He was endorsed by two Republican U.S. senators, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, and by Independent U.S. senator Joe Lieberman. Sherman was endorsed by then-lieutenant governor (and future governor) Gavin Newsom, former president Bill Clinton, and former Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis.
In the general election, Sherman defeated Berman, 60%–40%.
Tenure First elected to the House of Representatives in 1996, Sherman is serving his 12th term in Congress. He is a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Sherman has held over 160 Town Hall meetings since being elected to Congress.
Sherman voted with President Joe Biden's stated position 100% of the time in the 117th Congress, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis.
Sherman's voting record has most often earned him a 100% rating from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the American Federation of State, County, & Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Sherman's voting record has earned him a 100% rating in 2004 from the Humane Society. In 2017 and 2018, the Animal Welfare Institute gave Sherman a rating of 68%. Sherman's legislative record received a 100% rating from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in 2011, a 100% from the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 2007–08, a 100% from the Human Rights Campaign in 2009–10, and a 98% rating from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 2009–10. Sherman has earned a 100% rating from the National Education Association, and the American Federation of Teachers.
Office environment In December 2017, eight former aides to Sherman said that his offices in Washington, D. C., and California had a toxic environment characterized by frequent "verbal abuse from the congressman and senior staff who made them feel bullied and demoralized".Emily Cadei, Fear and yelling in L.A. congressman's office led to silence on harassment, aides say, McClatchy DC (December 19, 2017). A focus of the criticism was Matt Dababneh, Sherman's district director and a close advisor, who began working for Sherman in 2005 and became district director to Sherman in 2009.Melanie Mason, California assemblyman accused of forcing lobbyist into bathroom and masturbating, Los Angeles Times (December 4, 2017). Dababneh was elected to the California State Assembly in 2013 and resigned from that body after allegations of sexual assault and other misconduct were made against him. Former employees in Sherman's office told the Los Angeles Times that Dababneh frequently made inappropriate sexual remarks, including degrading and sexist comments and bragged about his sexual exploits. Although they did not suggest that Sherman knew of Dababneh's conduct, several staffers said the office environment did not encourage reporting and that Sherman would not have been receptive to complaints about a trusted advisor.
Sherman has acknowledged being "a demanding boss" but "denied that his management style contributed to the silence about Dababneh's behavior". Surveys of Capitol Hill staff rated Sherman as one of the worst members of Congress to work for with high staff turnover rates.
In January 2018, Sherman held a town hall meeting in Reseda, where a questioner who supported a Democratic primary challenger to Sherman accused Sherman of having an inadequate sexual harassment policy. Sherman replied: "We have five different ways to report sexual harassment in my office. One among those is to talk to me personally. And I talk to each staff member several times a year about the office policy." The exchange was cut from a video of the event that Sherman's office posted to YouTube; the office said that it excluded from the highlight reel "all questions asked by a questioner working with an opponent's campaign if the questioner failed to disclose that fact in their question".Emily Cadei, Congressman's office deletes question on sexual harassment scandal from town hall video, McClatchy DC (February 8, 2018).
Political positions
Abortion Sherman is pro-choice. Sherman opposed the overturning of Roe v. Wade, calling it "appalling and outrageous".
Cryptocurrency Sherman has been a strong opponent of cryptocurrency, and has advocated for banning cryptocurrency in the United States, citing concerns about crime and national security.
Donald Trump On July 12, 2017, Sherman introduced an Article of Impeachment (H. Res. 438) against President Donald Trump for High Crimes and Misdemeanors on the grounds that Trump attempted to obstruct justice by firing James Comey from the FBI. Sherman had only one co-sponsor, Al Green, who first called for Trump's impeachment in May 2017.
Economic policy During the debate over the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, Sherman was an early and outspoken critic of the proposal, leading the House revolt against the bill, a move that made him "spectacularly unpopular with both the Republican and Democratic leaderships, not to mention K Street". He argued that Bush and his advisors had created a panic atmosphere in an effort to get lawmakers to rubber-stamp the bill.
Sherman opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), arguing that they cost American jobs, fail to protect foreign workers, harm the environment, and cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars. He has also opposed a Free Trade Agreement with South Korea, arguing that such an agreement could undermine U.S. security and economic interests by benefiting China and North Korea.
In 2026, Sherman introduced the Iran War Oil Crisis Windfall Profits Tax Act, which would levy a 100% windfall tax on the amount by which crude oil prices exceed $75 per barrel during the 2026 Iran war.
Environment Serving on the House Budget Committee in 1997, Sherman authored the Sherman Amendment to the Budget Resolution, providing an additional $700 million for the acquisition of environmentally important lands in FY 1998.
Foreign policy In August 2010, Sherman introduced legislation aimed at rescinding China's Most Favored Nation status as long as there was not "a more level playing field between our two nations". He said, "the U.S.-China trade relationship is horrendously lopsided".
Sherman has introduced or co-sponsored more than 20 bills in the 111th and 112th Congresses that he says "enact tougher sanctions to isolate Iran economically and diplomatically". His efforts have included legislation designed to close loopholes for U.S. companies with subsidiaries operating in Iran, and to curtail U.S. funding of international organizations providing loans to Iran.
Sherman has been a strong supporter and advocate of the U.S-Israel relationship, consistently supporting aid to Israel. In 2016, he called the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Washington's chief pro-Israel lobbying and advocacy organization, "the single most important organization in promoting the U.S.-Israel alliance". In 2004, Sherman first introduced the U.S.-Israel Energy Cooperation Act. It provides grants to joint ventures between American and Israeli academics and private companies that conduct research and develop energy-efficient and renewable energy technologies.