D.A. Summer Stephan's incumbent protection plan

A political committee run and mainly funded by a payroll tithing plan for prosecutors in the district attorney’s office has picked up a donation from the political action committee of the Sheet Metal Workers Local 206. San Diegans Against Crime, sponsored by the San Diego County Deputy District Attorneys’ Association, got the $1000 on March 19, per a March 19 disclosure filing. In the same report, the group said it spent a total of $26,449 for polling, advertising, and signs backing incumbent D.A. Summer Stephan, appointed to her job last year by the county Board of Supervisors following the departure of her boss Bonnie Dumanis to run for county supervisor. $1887 was spent by the D.A.’s deputies on behalf of incumbent Sheriff Bill Gore. Stephan has been running a two-pronged campaign, touting support from Democrats including Shawn VanDiver, the longtime ally of ex-Republican Nathan Fletcher, currently running for the board of supervisors as a Democrat. At the same time, Stephan’s political consultant Jason Roe, referred to by city hall insiders the “brain” of San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, has been attempting to link deputy public defender Genevieve Jones-Wright, Stephan’s challenger, to billionaire Democrat George Soros and other like-minded criminal justice reformers.

Greasing the grassroots Circulate San Diego, a self-professed “regional grassroots organization” dedicated to “advancing mobility and making the region a better place to live, work, learn, and play,” has just hired the development lobbying and law firm of Sheppard Mullin. The firm’s mission, according to a March 30 disclosure filing with the city clerk’s office, is to garner “support for the use of mass transit and increasing options for mobility in San Diego planning documents.” Corporate members of the non-profit include San Diego Gas & Electric, Tom Sudberry’s Sudberry Properties of Mission Valley, Lowe Enterprises, another major Mission Valley builder, and Wakeland Housing & Development Corporation.