It’s a “lie.”

It’s “slander.”

And if you keep on doing it, you may be sued.

Those are some of the recent reverberations among Morris County Republicans after a campaign mailer from Tom Mastrangelo compared one of his opponents to AOC.

Mastrangelo is a veteran freeholder/commissioner who has fallen out of favor with the county’s Republican committee. First elected in 2010, Mastrangelo was not endorsed for reelection by the GOP committee. Three seats are up and the committee endorsed incumbent Doug Cabana, former Commissioner Christine Myers and Sarah Neibart, who sits on the Mendham Township Committee.

Both Cabana and Myers are former colleagues, so Mastrangelo clearly perceives Neibart as the weakest candidate on the endorsed slate.

His mailer brings up Neibart’s participation last year at a LGBT event in Mendham Township that featured a drag queen. She was mayor at the time.

The flyer says Neibart represents a “woke agenda” that threatens to indoctrinate children. Which, of course, is what Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants to do, the flyer asserts. A TV advertisement on Mastrangelo’s behalf makes a similar point.

Context is important.

On one hand, conservatives nationwide are showing up at school board meetings to criticize what they see as a liberal, public school agenda. Mastrangelo wants to tap into that sentiment.

However, the county commissioners have virtually nothing to do with education. They do oversee a vocational high school and a community college, but those institutions are run by independent boards.

All that aside, Team Neibart is fighting back.

A letter last week from the Fox Rothschild law firm on Neibart’s behalf, called the ads “demonstrably untrue,” adding that they were part of an “underhanded political attack that has crossed the line from protected First Amendment activity to intentionally false statements intended to injure and undermine.” In short, the letter says the ads attribute comments to Neibart that she did not make.

As a remedy, the letter says Mastrangelo must stop the ads and issue a retraction.

If not, “Sarah shall take any and all appropriate legal action against you.”

As for Neibart’s ticket-mates, Cabana and Myers, they recently dispatched their own letter to voters regarding an “alarming attempt to slander our fellow Commissioner candidate Sarah Neibart.”

It added, “We have been receiving calls, texts, Facebook messages and emails asking us if what Tom Mastrangelo is saying is true. Here is the answer: NO!

What he asserts is a lie. It is an exploitation of an event photo used as part of a negative campaign.”

Cabana and Myers go on to remind readers that Neibart won the “county line” by beating Mastrangelo, and that she represents the next generation of Republicans.

Caustic language in a campaign is common; so are court battles over campaign activity. And they occasionally do lead to the plaintiff getting some sort of relief. But that can’t be guaranteed.

The best way to get satisfaction is to win the election.

Mastrangelo, by the way, is not backing down. In a Facebook post today, he says:

“As a parent and grandfather, I simply cannot sit on the sideline as Sarah Neibart pushes a woke agenda on our kids. I’m asking you to stand with me to stop the woke takeover of the Morris GOP and far more importantly, the woke indoctrination of our children.”