June 13--In 2014, the national Republican Party was confident that it could defeat a Democratic member of Congress from San Diego.
Registration in the 52nd District is closely split. The incumbent, Scott Peters, was in his first term after narrowly defeating the Republican incumbent, Brian Bilbray, in 2012.
For 2014, the Republican challenger, former City Councilman Carl DeMaio, had high name recognition for his hard-charging style and his pledge to "fix Congress first" by making it more efficient and responsive to taxpayers. He had the support of the local newspaper's editorial page.
But the final weeks of the campaign focused to a large degree on allegations made by a former DeMaio staff member. His campaign never recovered, and DeMaio blamed his defeat on the charges and the Peters campaign's alleged role in spreading them.
On Friday, the ex-staffer admitted in federal court that he lied when he claimed to have gotten an anonymous email threatening that he would never work again in politics if he revealed things about DeMaio.
Todd Bosnich, 29, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice by lying to the FBI about the email. Until Friday, it was not known publicly that the federal government was investigating the email.
During the campaign, Bosnich had told reporters that he was "positive" that the email, and others, came from DeMaio or someone close to him.
But in his guilty plea, Bosnich admitted that he sent the email to himself through a dummy account and then took the email to the Peters campaign who turned it over to the San Diego Police Department.
Bosnich's actions "had the potential to affect a national election," said Assistant U.S. Atty. Phil Halpern. "Mr. Bosnich, for whatever reason, had a great deal of hostility and personal animus toward Mr. DeMaio."
The email, now known to be fraudulent, was meant to support Bosnich's allegation that DeMaio had touched him inappropriately and masturbated in front of him.
Bosnich said he had left the campaign because of DeMaio's alleged sexual misconduct. After the allegations were made public, DeMaio said Bosnich had been fired after sending out a plagiarized piece of campaign literature.
The federal investigation that resulted in the obstruction of justice charge did not involve whether the sexual allegations were factual or false.
Bosnich's attorney, Frank Vecchione, said that his client "is accepting responsibility and wants to move on with his life."
DeMaio, now a radio talk-show host in San Diego, issued a statement that "Bosnich's lies were incredibly painful, smeared my reputation and derailed our congressional campaign.... I also want to thank the thousands of supporters who stood by me and saw this disgusting smear for what it was.""
Peters, DeMaio said, "shares responsibility for promoting Bosnich's smears and lies for political gain."
In response, Peters said, "Someone came to us alleging sexual harassment by Mr. DeMaio; we took everything to the police and they thanked us for it. [DeMaio] was accused by two people from his own operation. He's the one who needs to take some responsibility."
