A Brief History of the Craziest Congressional Campaign of the Year

— -- 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.

A film about this political drama, which pits freshman Democratic Rep. Scott Peters against former City Councilman Carl DeMaio, might not garner any Oscar nominations, but it has all the scandalous allegations and sexual intrigue of a silver-screen blockbuster.

Forget that DeMaio slightly resembles Jack Black, or that Tom Hanks would be the perfect actor to play Peters. The last two weeks of the campaign have been dominated by lewd allegations, some too vulgar to print. But DeMaio, who is seeking to become the first openly-gay Republican candidate to win a seat to Congress, is still locked in a toss-up race against Peters.

Lawsuits. Burglary. Sexual Harassment. Masturbation: If anyone bites on the script, DeMaio/Peters could produce the greatest movie about San Diego since "Anchorman" was released a decade ago.

MAY 19: The story gets interesting when 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 earlier this month 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: The saga reached its climax when 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 onto a political seat in Congress."

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