SAN DIEGO — Smashed computer screens, water damage and stolen gift cards were among the estimated thousands of dollars in damage done to Republican Carl DeMaio’s congressional campaign office in a pre-primary break-in. Now suspicion has apparently fallen upon former DeMaio campaign staffers, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Months after the primary election-eve break-in, two former staffers are reportedly cooperating with a police investigation.
On June 3, DeMaio won the opportunity to face off against incumbent freshman Democrat Congressman Scott Peters (CA-52) in the November general election.
Early comments had suggested that the crime had been an attempt to silence DeMaio. A Peters campaign spokesman said at the time: “This is the kind of stuff people hate about politics.”
Recently, Lt. Kevin Mayer of the San Diego Police Department relayed that DeMaio’s campaign had identified two former staffers as potential suspects in the early stages of the investigation, according to the U-T.
The newspaper went on to quote Mayer as saying, “We anticipate the our investigation will be turned over to the District Attorney’s Office in the next couple of weeks.”
A DeMaio campaign spokesman told Breitbart News, “We were outraged by the damage done to the campaign during this break-in and hope the individual responsible is held fully accountable for their actions.”
Prior comments from the Peters campaign had condemned the crime, adding: “It’s in everyone’s interest to have the perpetrator caught and brought to justice.”
At the time of the incident, local 10 News reported, “There are questions about whether it might have been an inside job because of the entry point coming from an adjoining office and the fact that a file cabinet with files inside was untouched, while another was stripped of several hundred dollars worth of gasoline debit cards.”
At this time no suspect is being officially named, as the investigation is ongoing.
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