“Can I ask you to look into something?” Denton County Commissioner Dianne Edmondson asked The Watchdog. “I think it’s very important.” “OK,” I said. Advertisement She proceeded to tell me about a coordinated statewide smear campaign in a slew of state legislative races. She referred me to a guest column in The Dallas Morning News by State Rep. Jared Patterson (R-Frisco) headlined “Republican primary challengers are lying to voters.” Advertisement Patterson, who is running unopposed, used words such as poison, vitriol, misinformation, deceit and manipulation in his essay. These are not new traits in American politics. But Patterson says this...