Updated, June 14: (Jazz) As was pointed out in comments and multiple emails, the original version of this article identified Todd Bosnich as a Democrat. That’s obviously incorrect and there is no blame to be assigned here except toward yours truly. No excuses. No reasons. I blew that one. The complete original article (with errors struck through) remains below, but please do note corrections. My apologies for the admittedly egregious error, particularly to those who cited the article elsewhere.

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Anyone who was following the congressional election in California’s 52nd district last year likely remembers the drama which characterized the end of what should have been a tight, but winnable election for the GOP. The district, located in San Diego county, has been shifted around a bit in redistricting but was still cut in a very competitive fashion for the Republicans. (McCain carried it with 53% in 2008 and in the 2010 Senate race they went for Carly Fiorina by almost 60.) But at the end of the 2014 race, when incumbent Democrat Scott Peters was facing former city councilman, Republican Carl DeMaio, news broke about improper sexual allegations against DeMaio at the eleventh hour in the race. Not shockingly, this news was “helpfully” supplied not only to the police, (in the form of threatening emails he supposedly received from DeMaio’s team) but to the media, by an aide to Peters. His name was Todd Bosnich.

It completely derailed the DeMaio campaign and Peters went on to win. Well, with little fanfare, this week Bosnich found himself in court, admitting that he sent the emails to himself and had fabricated the entire thing.

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 anonymous emails 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 emails. Until Friday, it was not known publicly that the federal government was investigating the emails.

During the campaign, Bosnich had told reporters that he was ”positive” that the emails came from DeMaio or someone close to him.

But in his guilty plea, Bosnich admitted that he sent the emails himself through a dummy account and then took the emails to the Peters campaign who turned them over to the San Diego Police Department.

Talk about taking one for the team! Surely Bosnich knew that this deep into the 21st century such things were traceable and that there would be an investigation. Unless this guy was one of the most gullible examples of the walking dead who somehow get jobs in politics, wouldn’t he have had to know that he was going to be taking the fall for this eventually? But no matter… the deed was done and his guy held on to his office. I suppose that’s all that counts in the end.

I highlight this story mostly as a cautionary tale for those of you who may be present or future candidates, staffers, volunteers or supporters of politicos. Nothing is ever entirely safe, and this is a hardball game. And in some of the worst cases, there are no depths that people won’t sink to in order to achieve victory. It’s nice to think that a campaign can be skillful and ready for any eventuality, but honestly… who could have seen that one coming?

Update, Part 2. (Jazz)
As stated above, please note the edits to the original article and the incorrect party affiliation attributed to the central figure in the story. The larger story of how nasty a political campaign can become may still be true, but the culprit here should not have been identified as a member of the wrong party. Mea culpa.