DeMaio’s accuser sentenced

Timothy Kincaid

November 23rd, 2015

bosnichIn the final weeks of the 2014 election, the battle between incumbent Scott Peters (D) and gay challenger Carl DeMaio (R) was intense. DeMaio’s chances looked promising, until nasty accusations began to fly.

A story was leaked about a former staff member, Todd Bosnich, a straight man who was allegedly sexually assaulted by DeMaio. Although DeMaio denied any impropriety and insisted that Bosnich was fired for plagiarizing, local media seemed to buy into the ‘gay men are sexual predators’ stereotype, and their bias bled through in news reports.

In the last week of the campaign, Bosnich produced an email which he said had been sent to him anonymously but which he thought was from DeMaio. It made threats that Bosnich would never again work in politics and implied that DeMaio would buy his silence. This appeared to be the smoking gun that Peters’ camp needed. When Bosnich gave Peters’ campaign the email, they “took it to the police” (after a little trip to the local media).

It seemed proven now that DeMaio was a liar and a predator and he lost the election by 3% of the vote.

But while the email may have been the item that convinced the public that DeMaio was lying, it was also Bosnich’s error. This was a tangible item and, as such, had a traceable history.

Further, the threats implied in the email were sufficient for San Diego Police to turn the email over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which opened an investigation into the matter. Had DeMaio made threats of this nature, it could have been a serious issue.

Throughout the investigation, Bosnich insisted that he had received the email anonymously and that anonymous emails were a common means that DeMaio used to attack political threats. But when he was finally confronted with evidence, Bosnich admitted that the email was created by himself and sent to himself in order to give the appearance that DeMaio was threatening him.

Federal prosecutors brought Bosnich up on charges of obstruction of justice and he admitted his guilt. He has now been sentenced.

A former aide to Congressional candidate Carl DeMaio was sentenced to five years of probation Monday for using a phony email account to make it appear DeMaio or one of his associates threatened him.

While he avoided jail time, Todd Bosnich will also have to complete 240 hours community service, to take part in a mental health treatment program and to pay a $2,500 fine.

Bosnich will have this felony on his record for the rest of his life and will never again work in politics. DeMaio lost an election over false accusations. The voters were unduly influence and voted based on information that wasn’t true. Peters (who responded to the admission of fakery in the nastiest way possible) now has a tarnished reputation. And yet again, it has been proven that accusations against gay men are believed true until proven otherwise.

There are no winners here.

Sadly, I suspect this is a model that we will see used again against gay candidates. The stakes are high, and probation seems a low price for slandering a candidate enough to throw an election.

Ben in oakland

November 24th, 2015

Slandering gay men seems to be the way a lot of people win elections.

Lord_Byron

November 24th, 2015

Criminality aside for a moment, I have to ask what is the basis for the assertion that this is the event that cost him the election, Timothy? Not even Victory Fund supported the candidate. He did get support from the LCR, but given their reputation that doesn’t help. DeMaoi was a conservative gay man running in San Diego. He made statements that indicated that he didn’t think equal rights for LGBT people was that important. He also attacked another member of his own party for not being anti-gay enough.

“Before the endorsement battle, the DeMaio campaign circulated a 14-page document to members of the Republican central committee questioning Fletcher’s “conservatism.” DeMaio’s campaign manager, Ryan Clumpner also directly took issue with Fletcher’s failing grade by the California Republican Assembly and the Capitol Research Family Institute. Both conservative groups gave Fletcher failing grades for supporting LGBT-related legislation, including his vote in favor of a resolution by the California State Legislature in support of the repeal of the military’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy and his support of Senate Bill 48, the FAIR education act, which mandates that the contributions of the LGBT community be taught in public schools.”

I don’t see this so much as “accusations against gay people” and more “accusations against a politician” being believed. There is a history of politicians trying to use their power to ruin lives and to cover up scandals.

Timothy Kincaid

November 24th, 2015

Byron,

“I have to ask what is the basis for the assertion that this is the event that cost him the election, Timothy?”

He only lost by 3%. I could be wrong, of course, but I think it relatively certain that at least 3% were swayed by the accusations and “evidence”.

Priya Lynn

November 24th, 2015

“He only lost by 3%. I could be wrong, of course, but I think it relatively certain that at least 3% were swayed by the accusations and “evidence”.”.

Actually only a shade over 1&1/2 percent would have had to switch their votes to make the difference.

Timothy Kincaid

November 24th, 2015

Yes, thanks Priya Lynn.

Lord_Byron

November 24th, 2015

I honestly don’t think it impacted that much. I’ll admit it could have, but most people vote out of habit and do not change party affiliation. We’d have to look at previous election results, as a possible indicator, to see how close the election was compared to previous. If the previous elections were equally close then that would seem to indicate that the accusations didn’t matter much if they mattered at all.

Dave H

November 24th, 2015

Sadly, sometimes lying wins elections, and the election results are never overturned once the lies are uncovered. There’s usually no penalty for lying, either, but thankfully in this case Todd Bosnich was convicted and penalized. That rarely happens.

Al Raymond

November 25th, 2015

Given the Log Cabin’s record of kissing the Republican Party’s ass—and the party’s right-wing, anti-poor, anti-middle class, anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-black, anti-Hispanic, pro-billionaire bias for at least the last 35 years—I think the notion of a gay man running for office as a Republican is an oxymoron.

Was DeMaio a rare exception? If so, why did he get LCR’s endorsement?

Oggbert

December 1st, 2015

Lord_Byron could be right. Peters won in 2012 with a similar margin (51.18%), the turn out was a lot bigger (295,910 in 2012 vs 191,572 in 2014). Hard to draw anything pre-2010, since the district was made more competitive when the districts were redrawn.

Also, 2014 was not the first year DeMaio had been accused of sexual misconduct (he had as a City Councilman faced similar accusation, IIRC) and Bosnich wasn’t even the only staffer in 2014 to make the accusation.

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