A “fake news” website, created only weeks ago and already vomiting out promo pieces for a New Orleans Public Service Commission candidate whom I won’t name (that would be Stephanie Hilferty), has now been turned into a tool for a special-interest smear campaign against her opponent.

This week, voters across Southeast Louisiana received an anonymous text message from said fake site pushing a very stupid, distorted hit piece targeting PSC front-runner and former Jefferson Parish President John Young. The attack relies on innuendo, selective storytelling, and a deliberate twisting of a long-resolved lawsuit.

It’s the oldest trick in the political playbook: when you can’t win on merit, drag somebody else through the mud. But it helps when your attack has some meat on its bones. This particular smear doesn’t. It collapses under the facts in no time flat.

A little like the candidate pushing it, that being the weakest RINO in the race whom I won’t name (it’s Stephanie Hilferty).

The text message leans on Hilliard v. Jefferson Parish, a case brought by a disgruntled former employee against her supervisor, the Parish of Jefferson, and, strictly in name only, the parish president at the time, John Young. When you sue a parish government, you always end up naming the head of that government in the suit. It doesn’t mean the head of the government is actually involved in the substance of the suit.

And Young wasn’t in this case.

Here’s what an AI search on Hilliard v. Jefferson Parish turns up…

Jefferson Parish settled a wrongful termination lawsuit with former administrator Heather Hilliard for approximately $200,000 in January 2015. The case stemmed from claims that Hilliard was fired in retaliation after complaining about sexual harassment by former Deputy Chief Operating Officer Richard Hart.

Case Background and Settlement

• The Lawsuit: Heather Hilliard sued Jefferson Parish in January 2013, alleging discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation after she complained about Hart’s behavior in 2011.
• The Allegations: Hilliard claimed she was subjected to a hostile workplace and fired in May 2012 after receiving critical performance reviews shortly after an investigation found Hart violated harassment policies.
• Legal Outcome: A U.S. District Court dismissed all claims except the retaliation allegation against the parish, leading to a settlement just days before the scheduled jury selection.
• Settlement Terms: The Jefferson Parish Council approved the settlement, which sources estimated at nearly $200,000, though the exact amount was kept confidential under the agreement.

The facts are pretty clear, and anybody who looks up the Hilliard case can find out that:

• John Young was never accused of any misconduct by any Jefferson Parish employee or by anyone else.
• He was named solely in his official capacity, a routine procedural step when suing a government entity.
• U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo dismissed John Young from the suit on Summary Judgment because he was not needed as a party to the lawsuit.
• The judge also dismissed all claims against every individual parish official.

These are not interpretations. They are the court’s rulings.

Plain and simple: John Young was dismissed as a party to the lawsuit hyped by this phantom site, and any suggestion otherwise is exaggerated and misleading. A disgusting recurrence in Louisiana campaigns comes about when a politician like John Young, who’s been around forever and never had any sex dirt on him, gets a weak smear like this.

And that it comes from the candidate I won’t name (who is Stephanie Hilferty), the RINO girlboss who carries water for the leftist girlboss Democrat mayor of New Orleans at the legislature, is 100 percent on brand. By all means let’s go and make John Young into Eric Swalwell, because doing that distracts everybody from the question of what an utter disaster Stephanie Hilferty would be on the PSC, replacing Eric Skrmetta who’s been an actual conservative in that job for 20 years.

Non-dysfunctional political campaigns should be about ideas, records, and the future, not about twisting stupid, baseless #MeToo-style personal attacks. If the people behind this attack believe their candidate (who is Stephanie Hilferty) has something worth offering, they should make that case honestly. Because when campaigns rely on distortion rather than the truth, the only real losers are the voters.