Pretend I'm writing this for the Beeb

Up-to-date reports of this developing story can be best read from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Political Fix and tweeted by Tony Messenger and Jake Wagman. Again, pretend I'm writing this for the BBC. (If BBC wish to use it, they're more than welcome to. By the way, my mobile number is 077…)

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A lawmaker made famous by the 2004 documentary "Can Mr Smith Get To Washington Anymore?" will resign from his seat in the Missouri state senate after pleading guilty to federal charges of obstructing justice.

Jeff Smith, a Democrat state senator from St Louis, admitted in court that he knew about an independent campaign producing fliers aimed to benefit Mr Smith's 2004 campaign for Congress.

Mr Smith finished second of ten in the Democratic primary for Missouri's Third District, behind eventual winner Russ Carnahan for the open seat vacated by long-time congressman Dick Gephardt.

'This event has humbled me.'

In a statement to the press, Mr Smith admitted fault and apologised to the constituents of his district in St. Louis city.

“Federal campaign finance law prohibits specific coordination between a campaign and anyone preparing an independent expenditure,” Mr Smith said. “When the independent operator requested funding, I authorized a close friend to raise money for the effort, and my press secretary provided public information about my opponent’s voting record. I withheld my knowledge of these facts during the Federal Election Commission’s 2004 investigation, misleading investigators and filing a false affidavit.”

Local media have named the 'close friend' as Milton 'Skip' Ohlsen III. Mr Ohlsen is currently in jail following a guilty plea to mortgage fraud charges. A 2007 investigation by the Federal Elections Commission, spurred by a complaint filed by Mr Carnahan, named Mr Ohlsen as the distributor of fliers that improperly attacked the Carnahan campaign in 2004. The report also found that Mr Ohlsen received $13,000 from an unknown source to fund the fliers.

In recent weeks, Mr Ohlsen was discovered to have become heavily involved with the Missouri Democratic Party, assisting with campaigns and dining in the governor's mansion in 2004 with then-governor Bob Holden. Mr Ohlsen has been in legal troubles since the 1990s.

Another member of Smith's 2004 campaign, state representative Steve Brown of Clayton, pleaded guilty to similar charges today and also resigned.

Grassroots campaigner

Mr Smith was in the third year of his first four-year term in the Missouri Senate, first elected in November 2006.

His resignation likely brings to a sudden close a political career that meteorically rose during his 2004 campaign for Congress as told in the documentary, "Can Mr Smith Get To Washington Anymore?"

Then a 29-year-old professor at Washington University in St Louis, Mr Smith relied on personal connections and funds to develop a grassroots campaign to challenge the perceived establishment candidate Russ Carnahan. Mr Carnahan's father Mel was the Missouri governor who died in a 2000 plane crash.

Despite gaining support along the campaign, Mr Smith lost by two points to Mr Carnahan in the August 2004 primary.

Mr Smith ran in 2006 for the open state senate seat in St Louis city, beating four Democratic candidates in the primary before arriving uncontested in the state capital Jefferson City.

Mr Smith's campaign would be the forerunner of other modern grassroots campaigns that would elevate lawmakers from near-obscurity into prominence, most notably President Barack Obama and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.