Here’s where the vicious campaign for local state representative stands: Republican state Rep. Lindsay Parkhurst is being painted as a friend of sexual predators. And so is her Democratic opponent, Lisa Dugan.

A few weeks ago, the Democrats started sending mailers portraying Parkhurst as being in league with those who prey on children. Now, the GOP has returned fire, accusing Dugan of pretty much the same thing.

Both parties are missing something crucial — evidence.

In the last two weeks, the state Republican Party has run two mailers trying to connect Dugan, a Bradley resident, to a former suburban lawmaker who pleaded guilty to collecting more than 2,700 photos and videos containing child pornography.

One of the mailers is headlined, “Dugan’s keeping her dirty money.”

“Lisa Dugan has taken over $700,000 in campaign cash from the same Madigan-affiliated group who bankrolled a politician that pleaded guilty to horrific child pornography crimes. After pleading guilty, the candidate was sued by victims, who said they were repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted to produce child pornography,” the mailer says. “As horrific as that is, Lisa Dugan won’t give back the donations.”

But why should she?

The “Madigan-affiliated group” to which the flyers refer apparently is the Illinois Democratic Party, which is chaired by House Speaker Michael Madigan, of Chicago. It gave money to both Rep. Keith Farnham, D-Elgin, who pleaded guilty to child porn charges, and Dugan, who previously served in the House.

Farnham, who was arrested in April 2014, was handed an eight-year prison sentence. He died last year.

The Democratic Party never gave Farnham another dollar after he was arrested. The Republican Party has provided no evidence that Madigan, Dugan or anyone else in authority in the Democratic Party knew anything about Farnham’s crimes before his arrest.

Dugan is among scores of candidates helped by the Democratic Party throughtout the years. By the mailer’s logic, every candidate who has ever received money from the party should return it because of the party’s donations to Farnham.

The GOP tactic is nothing new. In 2016, the party leveled an almost identical attack against Democrat Andy Skoog in the District 76 race in La Salle County.

In a flyer back them, the GOP accused Skoog of accepting more than $16,000 in campaign contributions from “the same political groups who bankrolled a politician that pleaded guilty to horrific child pornography crimes ... Andy Skoog won’t give back the political donations.”

In its latest attack, the GOP is joining its rivals in the gutter. The Democrats have sent out flyers blasting Parkhurst, a Kankakee defense attorney, for doing her job as a defense attorney, as the Daily Journal has documented previously.

“Lawyer Lindsay Parkhurst defended a person charged with possession of child pornography and got the charges reduced so her client could escape with no jail time,” the mailer says, adding that Parkhurst is “great for criminals, bad for our neighborhoods.”

Parkhurst was dutybound to represent her client to the fullest and seek the best deal possible, which the state’s attorney code of ethics requires.

Another recent mailer accused Parkhurst of taking a donation from a person who also gave $100,000 to an “accused child molester” who targeted “young girls.” But the “accused” molester, Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, denied the allegations and has not been charged with any crimes. A number of women came forward during his campaign to say he molested them when they were in their teens.

Dugan and Parkhurst will face each other in the Nov. 6 election.

The parties are paying for the attack mailers. Neither candidate has publicly disavowed them.