San Diego DA Bonnie Dumanis seeks fourth term

By Katie Lucia

Daily Journal Staff Writer

As sparks fly in the race for San Diego's top prosecutor, candidates have leveled stinging accusations that raise questions about the integrity of political endorsements and the ethics of campaign donations.

Incumbent Bonnie M. Dumanis, seeking her fourth term, faces two challengers in the June 3 statewide primary election: Terri Wyatt, a retired prosecutor with the San Diego district attorney's office, and Robert S. Brewer Jr., a Jones Day partner recognized as a leading white-collar crime and government investigations lawyer.

In the most recent round of mudslinging, Dumanis accused Brewer of releasing an inaccurate campaign video in which Father Joe Carroll, a well-known religious figure in San Diego, refers to Brewer as a "widely respected state and federal prosecutor."

"Mr. Brewer is a criminal defense lawyer and hasn't been a prosecutor for more than 30 years," Dumanis told the Daily Journal. "It's not a knock on Father Joe. It's just a request that the ad be truthful."

Alex Roth, a spokesman for Brewer's campaign, said the video was clearly discussing roles he's held in his career. Disparaging Carroll's comments is "simply inappropriate," he said.

Dumanis has led the office 11 years, during which time crime has gone down, especially murder. This, she said, is because of her office's 94 percent conviction rate. She's garnered heavy-hitting endorsements, including California Attorney General Kamala Harris and the San Diego prosecutors' union.

But so far this year, Brewer has outraised Dumanis by $16,000 and holds $100,000 more in cash than Dumanis, who has about $250,000 in her war chest. Wyatt's funding trailed the others with $54,000 raised this year and a cash balance of $33,000.

If elected, Brewer said he plans to "depoliticize" the office and regain the confidence of law enforcement. He has pointed to Dumanis' unsuccessful bid for San Diego mayor in 2012, in which she became the county's first sitting district attorney to ever run for another public office.

Brewer said Dumanis' run for mayor precluded the San Diego district attorney's office from prosecuting former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, who was sentenced last year for sexual harassment crimes. The state attorney general handled the matter.

"It's one of the biggest criminal cases in San Diego in the last decade," Brewer said. "On the frontline should have been the district attorney, but because of her political activities, they were disqualified."

But Dumanis defended herself. "I was encouraged to run for mayor and felt I had something to offer," she said. "It did not mean that I did not want to be the district attorney."

She added that the office wasn't "recused" from the Filner case. In fact, she led the team that determined which agencies would be involved in the matter. Ultimately, under her direction, the group decided the case should be investigated by the San Diego sheriff and prosecuted by the attorney general, she said.

Brewer also pointed to the revelation earlier this year that an independent campaign supporting Dumanis for mayor received $200,000 from Jose Susumo Azano Matsura, a Mexican millionaire facing federal charges for laundering foreign money into local campaigns.

"The use of this is just plain politics," Dumanis said. "My mayor campaign staff knew nothing about the hundreds of thousands of dollars illegally channeled because it was through an independent committee we were prohibited from coordinating with or communicating with."

While the laws surroundings political action committees can be tricky, a campaign can't be responsible for the wrongdoing of all of its contributors, according to Jessica A. Levinson, professor of election law at Loyola Law School.

"The campaign should, to the best of its ability, ensure that [contributors] are who they say they are, but when people decide to funnel money and it's not readily apparent - as it is in this case, I believe - then I'm not sure it's always fair to impute the wrongdoing onto the candidate," she said.

The issue plagues many public officer hopefuls, she said, including New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who recently announced the return of donations received from an international hotel magnate convicted of campaign finance fraud. Still, the unsavory contributions can be "very damaging" for a campaign, she said.

Wyatt, who retired in September after a 27-year career as a prosecutor, did not return phone and email messages seeking comment. On her campaign website, she said if elected she would make sure the office was being managed in a "non-political fashion at all times" while still being led by a career prosecutor.

href="mailto:
katie_lucia@dailyjournal.com">
katie_lucia@dailyjournal.com

<!-- San Diego DA Bonnie Dumanis seeks fourth term -->