Republican real estate agent Laura Benson, apparently growing desperate in her second attempt to defeat Sarasota State Rep. Keith Fitzgerald, a New College professor, this weekend launched a relentless, party-funded media blitz built almost entirely on a flimsy foundation of falsehoods.

In her ads she accused her Democratic opponent of “corruption,” of “giving our hard-earned tax money to illegal aliens,” even saying he favors a state income tax. Benson this week said each of her allegations is true: “I stand by my statements.”

The television centerpiece of the new attacks is a commercial featuring an obese man, presumably a caricature of Fitzgerald, stuffing ice cream in his mouth and insinuating Fitzgerald is somehow “double-dipping” into the state treasury, presumably because he works for the state’s honors college and is a part-time legislator.

A Web-based assault repeats and intensifies the allegation, and cites as proof Fitzgerald’s vote against an amendment to HB 2848, a law that toughened the restrictions on retirees taking their pension early and then taking a similar Tallahassee job while also drawing a pension. Fitzgerald is not retired.

Fitzgerald voted for the bill that became law, but voted against an amendment to it, because he said it stripped out a provision he viewed as crucial, which would forbid a practice – uncovered by a recent Miami Herald investigation – whereby high-ranking state officials took retirement as soon as they were eligible but continued to serve in essentially the same capacity as “consultants” at the same or higher salaries, while drawing their hefty pensions.

One link on the Web site takes readers to the roll call vote tabulation showing Fitzgerald’s “no” vote – on the amendment – but not his “yes” vote on the double-dipping bill itself. The other link goes to the 107 mind-numbing pages of the amendment’s text so the concerned voter may parse the text for its true meaning.

Benson said more tough ads are coming. “At least this is getting people talking about Keith Fitzgerald’s record. He’s gotten nothing done up there and the news media isn’t doing any examination of his record.”

But Benson throws more allegations out there, too: That Fitzgerald backs a state income tax; that he supports open national borders; that he voted to raise state college tuitions by 40 percent.

All of them are false, Fitzgerald said, and the record overwhelmingly supports him. “Really, they are just a bunch of lies. That’s what it comes down to. If this is what you have to do to win, I think I’d rather just sit home.”

His wife Angela, who answered the telephone at their Sarasota home, was more pointed, and less sanguine about someone calling her professor-husband “corrupt”: “Sometimes just by putting all these untruths out there, it can be like un-ringing a bell. Some people will believe it just because someone said it, and the stink doesn’t go away.

“The sad thing for me is, Keith has spent 20, 25 years teaching students about government, teaching them to be involved citizens ... But this stuff makes people cynical, not just about politics, but about government service – and so some good people don’t want anything to do with it,” she said.

It also tends to suppress the vote, and national Republican strategists believe that turning off masses of voters is a good thing for their candidates.

Fitzgerald said that despite some pretty vicious attacks by Benson two years ago, he expected a cleaner campaign this time around, so he was surprised by this weekend’s direct-mail, Internet and television barrage, funded by the Republican Party of Florida – and approved by Benson.

“I don’t know how she can sink to this level … especially after what happened to her.”

Two years ago, when Benson first vied for the District 69 House seat, which centers on the City of Sarasota and north Sarasota County, Benson’s Republican primary opponent David Mills was quietly spreading the rumor that Benson used to be a pole dancer. When he dropped that aside on the Pelican Press editorial board, this newspaper printed a news story to that effect, asking Mills and his campaign leaders to show us some proof.

There was none. Other newspapers picked up the story, and Mills’ campaign was finished.

Benson’s allegations look like they have substantiation: Little footnotes in mailers or Internet links purport to back up her assertions – but if a viewer takes the time to follow them, they prove little or nothing.

No Florida politician would advocate a state income tax. Such a tax is forbidden by the state Constitution, and has been for many decades. Like calling for major cutbacks in Social Security or its repeal – it’s one of the so-called “third rails” of Florida politics: Touch it and you die.

For that one, Benson cites the date of a League of Women Voters forum last month. But then-league president Pat Price, who moderated the debate, said she did ask assembled candidates a question about whether a state income tax might have helped Florida avert the current budget crisis, but she did not ask the candidates whether they supported such a tax.

But after she asked her questions, Price said, “Rep. Fitzgerald did not raise his hand [although] he indicated he wanted to comment and I said the candidates would have an opportunity to address anything during the wrap up, and I moved on to the next question.”

“Oh yes he did [raise his hand],” Benson said. “He started to put his hand up then pulled it right down. He didn’t say anything, but I saw him raise it.”

As for her repeated charge that Fitzgerald “voted to give illegal aliens free health insurance,” as a mailer headline booms, that is not true.

That charge’s “explanatory” link goes to another roll call vote, with a footnote comment by Rep. Bob Allen, R-Merritt Island, referencing the problem of illegal aliens. But the bill and vote were about expanding the KidCare program to the children of the working poor. KidCare is the popular federally subsidized Medicaid program that provides health care to uninsured children.

But all children served by KidCare must be citizens.

Fitzgerald did indeed vote in favor of it, as did the entire local legislative delegation, including Ron Regan and Doug Holder, both Republicans, and virtually all of the Republican leadership including House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-Miami. It passed 112-14.

Then there’s the “40 percent tuition hike” allegation.

The bill reached with that link supports a university system-requested “tuition differential” supplement increase of 15 percent, not tuition. That is a surcharge the top state universities that conduct expensive research may levy. The law also capped total future increases in that supplement at those universities -- the University of Florida and Florida State University – to a maximum of 40 percent. The amount collected from that supplement could total about $280 over the next three years, if it is increased each year, not Benson’s alleged 40 percent increase in tuition, which would be about $1,400. Instate tuition currently runs an average of about $3,500.

And that supplement does not even apply to most state universities.

The vote?  It was 116-37 in favor, with Fitzgerald and, again, the entire local delegation plus Rubio and the Republican leadership supporting it.

“That doesn’t matter,” Benson said. “Today, with the pressure on families’ finances, the economy… No one should be voting for any increases. People just can’t afford it.”