A Timeline of the Dramatic Congressional Campaign in California's 52nd District - East Idaho News
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A Timeline of the Dramatic Congressional Campaign in California’s 52nd District

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CA?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1414106741025Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call(WASHINGTON) — If anyone in Hollywood writes a movie script based on one congressional campaign of the 2014 midterm election season, Tinseltown should look no farther than California’s 52nd Congressional District.

The drama, which pits freshman Democratic Rep. Scott Peters against former City Councilman Carl DeMaio, who is seeking to become the first openly-gay Republican candidate to win a seat to Congress, has all the scandalous allegations of a blockbuster:

May 19: DeMaio fired former aide Todd Bosnich for allegedly plagiarizing a campaign report on congressional pensions.

May 27: DeMaio blamed Bosnich, who is also openly gay, for a May 27 burglary at campaign headquarters where computers were destroyed, phone lines were cut and a “campaign strategy book” was stolen and quickly leaked to Peters.

Oct. 10: Bosnich responded by claiming in an interview with CNN that DeMaio had made unwanted sexual advances towards him, even calling him into his office only to discover DeMaio supposedly masturbating there. Bosnich also passed an independent polygraph exam, which showed he had no deception when he repeated the allegations against DeMaio.

Oct. 19: As the two candidates took their positions at a televised forum last Sunday, DeMaio coolly refused to shake hands with Peters, who DeMaio then confronted about the campaign playbook. While Peters acknowledged that his campaign received “information” last June, he denied any culpability and said he immediately turned it over to police.

Oct. 20: San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis announced DeMaio won’t be criminally charged with sexual harassment. Neither will Bosnich face charges of burglary.

Oct. 22: DeMaio and Peters appear together at another event, and DeMaio again refuses to shake Peters’ hand, gesturing that he was sick.

DeMaio is one of the GOP’s most-prized recruits, with House Speaker John Boehner even shunning some conservatives to campaign alongside the Republican challenger. Now, DeMaio is attempting to rebound from two weeks of mudslinging in time for Election Day on Nov. 4.

With the sexual harassment allegations all but put to bed, DeMaio has publicly complained that Peters’ campaign promoted Bosnich’s story behind the scenes, unfairly exploiting his homosexuality to feed the media’s infatuation with erotic allegations about a perverted candidate.

“I guess you can say anything about the gay guy and some people will believe it,” DeMaio told The Hill last weekend. “I think that when we learned this week that Scott Peters’ campaign was actively promoting this smear to reporters and making other claims that were outrageous, despicable, disgraceful, unethical — it simply confirmed for me the lengths that this man would go and the lack of judgment that [Peters] possesses to simply hang on to a political seat in Congress.”


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