"Hey," said Republican Laura Benson of her ads stating falsely that state Rep. Keith Fitzgerald had given benefits to illegal aliens, favored a state income tax and raised college tuition 40 percent, "when you’re in politics, you have to develop a thick skin."

Recall her demeaning TV commercial portraying Fitzgerald as an advocate for "double-dippers" while an obese actor gorged on ice cream.

"I told the party to stop them," said Republican Nancy Detert disingenuously of her commercials making distorted claims about her state Senate opponent Morgan Bentley. "But they just wouldn’t do it." Uh-huh.

Republican County commission candidate Carolyn Mason used TV commercials portraying New College faculty member Jono Miller as a bearded buffoon stumbling around in a pink tutu, degrading him with the cheap gender-identity "joke." She wouldn’t return calls for comment.

Benson, after her second campaign relying almost wholly on lies elevated occasionally to mere distortion, lost. Again.

But Detert – whom the Pelican Press endorsed – and Mason, won. Why does the majority party resort to sleazy, disrespectful ads, especially blatantly false, last-minute television commercials? Because they work, and polls showed the candidates in a close race.

The ads work because they demean and incessantly hammer home a negative, memorable image of an opponent. They work especially well with what the parties call "low-information" voters whose attention can be grabbed right before an election with a blitz of expensive party- and PAC-funded commercials, when it’s too late for spent-out challengers to respond. They also turn people off to the U.S. version of the democratic process, but who cares?

Fitzgerald had the strength of incumbency behind him, could afford to respond, and did. Bentley and Miller went under.

Miller agreed with Fitzgerald who weeks ago said he’d rather lose than join his opponents in the swamp, and he still believes that.

He knew Mason had declared personal bankruptcy years ago; yet, she could be making decisions affecting the county’s $1.1-billion budget and be forced to resist all manner of temptation. He also knew her son had a long history of drug-related felony arrests and convictions -- and used none of it against her. "That’s personal stuff," he said, even as she and her party handlers resorted to lies and the pink tutu when they could find no dirt on him. Mason must be very proud.

Miller never considered appealing to racial antipathies, either, and he takes consolation in the fact Sarasota has its first black county commissioner. (But maybe not this commissioner?)

Ethics? It’s only winning that matters, right?

But we pay the price. When the best and brightest candidates are buried in a blizzard of sleaze, we get the other kind representing us in Washington, Tallahassee and locally. And that happens way too often.