Bill Lee's Trashy Website

In a losing campaign, there comes a time when a candidate faces the decision of whether to go negative. I've been involved in winning and losing campaigns, and I am pleased to say that the candidates I have worked with never chose to get nasty. I have seen the impulse to start slinging mud restrained by candidates' better angels, as well as the cold reality that it probably wouldn't make any difference. It's one thing for a hockey player to start checking harder or for a lineman to grab his opponent's jersey in a close contest. But it's another thing to get dirty when the game is effectively out of reach.
So what is Bill Lee, who is down by thirty points, doing putting up trashy hit-piece website with less than a month to go? The website, called therealjackmarkell.com, comes complete with the obligatory grainy black and white photos, and dredges up an old shareholder lawsuit against Nextel that was settled after Markell left the company. Hey, if these guys want to remind people that Jack Markell helped build a Fortune 500 company, well good for them.

The site also offers overheated language about the "skyrocketing budget" of the Treasurer's office, and offers some pages from different budget bills as evidence. A quick review of the evidence presented reveals that most of the budget increase was due to the debt service the Treasurer's office manages, not the operating expenses of the office. The people who cooked this up either don't know know what they're talking about or don't care, which is fine, because they probably won't be working in state government anytime soon.
I really shouldn't care about this crap, because Jack Markell is going to win by a mile. But having worked in government and politics, I have these old-fashioned beliefs about acting with integrity in the public sphere.