Ghosts of taxpayers past

San Diego county district attorney Bonnie Dumanis easily dispatched the inept campaign of challenger Bob Brewer, a sometime defense lawyer who inexplicably shied from talking about restoration of the office’s long-dormant ethics division. Dumanis is currently busy parrying attempts by a group of local media outlets advised by so-called First Amendment lawyer GuyLyn Cummins to get hold of a purported endorsement letter Dumanis wrote on behalf of the son of political money-laundering defendant Jose Susumo Azano. With Dumanis safely re-elected, even U-T San Diego — owned by real-estate magnate Douglas Manchester, a longtime backer of the D.A. — is loudly bemoaning her refusal to turn over the missive.

In the meantime, another dark bit of Dumanis’s doings continues to languish unnoticed. According to filings in the state capital, Dumanis has been lavishing public money on legislative lobbying expenses. Besides compensating in-house lobbyist Gail Stewart-Brockman with $38,183 during the first quarter of this year, the district attorney laid out $10,210.85 worth of “other Payments to Influence.” Costs included five tabs at the Sacramento Hyatt Regency across from the capitol, totaling just a bit over $2000, along with an outlay of $260 at the Marriott in Monterey and $343 at the Citizen hotel in Sacramento.

“The Citizen ensures first-rate luxury and boutique hotel amenities for all of our Model Citizens,” notes the website of the historic inn. “Only a few of our 198 Sacramento hotel rooms are alike, which means that every time you return to The Citizen Hotel, you’ll have a new experience. Enjoy the luxury of the historic 13th floor, with updates to the décor that capture its original features, including the impressive tile work in the larger bathrooms. You might even see the friendly ghost that some say makes appearances.”