After nearly two-and-a-half years as San Diego’s first openly gay district attorney, Bonnie Dumanis has begun her campaign for re-election in June 2006. Despite sharp criticism following a recent squabble with City Attorney Mike Aguirre, Dumanis said she stands behind her achievements since taking office in 2003, as well as her decision to reintroduce a study to examine the fiscal benefits of handing over less-serious criminal prosecutions from the City Attorney’s to the District Attorney’s Office, which she said could save the city at least $2 million a year.

Tensions came to a head when Dumanis paid an impromptu visit to the City Council April 5 to present a proposal that would allow her office to take over misdemeanor cases from the city attorney. Notifying some council members and top city officials prior to coming in, Dumanis has felt the heat over her decision to leave Aguirre out of the loop, which has been interpreted by Aguirre as a political move to reduce the reach of the City Attorney’s Office and stifle his ability to investigate the City Council, mayor and other city officials – at one point describing her actions as a “political assassination attempt.”

“I don’t think there is any question that she was trying to take away my ability to prosecute cases of corruption associated with City Hall,” Aguirre told the Gay & Lesbian Times. “Her approach was basically dishonest and sneaky. She thought by taking the people she took with her [Police Chief William Lansdowne and Sheriff Bill Kolendar] and aligning herself with the mayor, that she could win by power of politics as oppose to principal. … and she hasn’t even apologized.”

Dumanis told the Gay & Lesbian Times that she is sorry for this so-called blindsiding of Aguirre, but remains strong on her decision to reintroduce an idea she says she has been discussing for years.

“This is something I personally have been talking about for years,” Dumanis said. “It started for me when I was on the bench… because I handled misdemeanors from beginning to end as a judge.”

Dumanis explained having the two offices handle both felonies and misdemeanors creates unneeded costs at a time when the city needs to evaluate how to become more efficient.

“We have the systems in effect already and it will require us fewer people. So with our case management system, with our more experienced deputies handling the review of the cases, and with felony and misdemeanor attorneys being able to share the burden, we are able to handle more,” she said.

Aguirre disagrees and said he believes the move is bad policy, will not save money, and that her office does not have the time to take on misdemeanors.

“If this was really a good idea, what you would do is call up the city attorney and say, ‘let’s talk about this,’ and find out how to work together, but the answer is that there is no way that the D.A. is going to do what we do in neighborhood enforcement, ” he said.

“It’s the worst type of politics and it is very disappointing because she campaigned against an opponent [former District Attorney Paul Pfingst] for the exact same type of politics that she, herself, is now engaged in,” he added.

Dumanis said this move was not political and was truly a genuine offer to help.

“There is no conspiracy. This is my attempt having [been] a former judge, having been now the district attorney, seeing how the system works, knowing that we are in a budget cycle now… it makes good fiscal sense to put it forward.”

She added that it will in no way handcuff the city attorney in his efforts to uncover corruption at City Hall, and he will always have the ability to conduct his own investigations.

“This is not about protecting anyone at City Hall. This is about saving taxpayers dollars,” she said.

Dumanis will focus her campaign on her achievements since taking office and on maintaining the momentum she has started since her appointment.

“When I came into the office, the office was divided. … One of the biggest accomplishments and one of the things I put into motion right away was that no matter where anyone stood in the campaign, we are all a part of a team,” she said, referring to efforts to unite the District Attorney’s Office, promote and appoint based on merit over the previous system of favoritism, settle civil service complaints and increase diversity among staff.

Another challenge Dumanis faced following her election was a budget cut to the tune of $14 million, which she said she was able to offset by increasing the efficiency and overall effectiveness of the office.

“With less money, we do way more now, and we haven’t sacrificed anything. We have a 95-percent conviction rate. It was 92 percent when I came into office,” she said.

She also said the office has increased services with the creation of new specialized units in the areas of narcotics; cold homicide, which deals with the 2,000 unsolved murder cases in San Diego; and sexual assault and stalking.

Dumanis has received both praise and disapproval from the GLBT community during her tenure. However, even as a Republican who declines to take a stand on issues such as same-sex marriage, she has managed to maintain support from the much of the community.

“Bonnie has gone above and beyond her duties and responsibilities as District Attorney. She has completely turned around an office that was in turmoil and disrepair and made it one of the finest in the country,” said Garrick Wilhelm, president of San Diego Log Cabin Republicans. “She is the epitome of a servant of the people, in contrast with our city and legislative representatives.”

Stephen Whitburn, president of the San Diego Democratic Club, said they were unable to endorse her in 2003 because she is a Republican, but gave an “acceptable” rating, indicating their support.

“Bonnie is a visible, elected leader who is known to be lesbian, and I think that’s good for the LGBT community,” he said. “It would be very helpful if she would vocally support marriage equality. At the same time, many of us were concerned when she was quoted as saying that she has ‘great respect for George Bush.’”

Aguirre, however, said that Dumanis is too political, and this recent example has weakened her support from the gay community.

“I believe it was a real source of pride for the gay community to have Ms. Dumanis elected as D.A., but her real allegiances are to the reactionary forces, not the gay community,” he said.

“We have to get San Diego back on track, and right now San Diego is divided into two camps. There is the reform camp and the cover-up camp, and the reform camp is getting stronger. I believe the gay community supports the reform camp. At this time, you cannot make the case the Ms. Dumanis is part of the solution. There is no way, in my judgment, that she should be re-elected.”

“I think Bonnie successfully showed that Mike needs to switch to decaf,” Whitburn said “but she injected more personalities and tensions into an already-stressful environment, which isn’t the answer, either. I suspect the mayor’s resignation will reduce the acrimony, and it ought to be an opportunity for cooler heads to start working together to address these problems.”