Politics can be ugly.  But locally, they aren’t usually as deceptive and vicious as what we’ve seen lately.

An out-of-state group has spent big bucks to smear Sen. Sally Doty. While we won’t side with any particular candidate in any race, we will help educate voters. And in this case, the materials being mailed to Lincoln County residents are full of inaccuracies.

One mailer states in bold type that “Sally Doty refuses to take a stand against Obamacare in Mississippi.” How did the out-of-state group arrive at that position? Doty simply refused to complete the group’s survey, just like dozens of other legislators. Refusing to complete a survey doesn’t equate supporting Obamacare.

The attacks didn’t stop there. The group also claims that Doty “thinks you should be left vulnerable to armed thugs and rapists.” Again, because Doty refused to complete the group’s survey, it jumped to the ridiculous conclusion that Doty is against gun rights. Now, whether Doty is a gun supporter or not is irrelevant to us. The fact that the group claims she is against guns simply because she didn’t complete a survey is laughable.

The group also claims that Doty killed a Constitutional Carry bill — twice. The Senate version of the bill died on the House calendar, meaning it never was voted on there. Doty did vote “yes” on an amended version of the bill before it died without a vote in the House. The second piece of legislation the group refers to died in a committee that Doty is vice-chair of. That bill would have created a Second Amendment Task Force.

Scare tactics are nothing new in politics, but we encourage voters to carefully read the fine print on any political advertisements. When the public believes inaccurate statements and votes accordingly, we all lose.