Summer’s Roe boat

With what some are referring to as the pending anointment of Summer Stephan as successor to Republican district attorney Bonnie Dumanis comes conflict-of-interest questions involving at least one member of the county board of supervisors. 

Kristin Gaspar is widely expected to vote in favor of a controversial plan by Dumanis to resign this summer and be replaced by her current deputy Stephan. That would position Stephan to run on the incumbent’s inside track during next year’s election.

Besides hailing from the same party, Gaspar and Stephan are clients of political consultant Jason Roe. The controversial Roe is a city hall insider often labeled “Kevin Faulconer’s brain.” He repeatedly tangled with Chargers special counsel Mark Fabiani over Faulconer’s award of a lucrative Qualcomm Stadium contract to one of Roe’s big-money lobbying clients. 

County campaign finance disclosure records show that Gaspar’s 2016 campaign for supervisor paid Roe’s Revolvis Consulting more than $337,000 for services and related expenses, or 56 percent of the campaign’s total expenditures. Stephan won’t have to file her first campaign-spending disclosure until the end of July, but Roe is not expected to come cheap.