Sarah Neibart is now on offense, so much so that opponent Tom Mastrangelo went to court to stop her.

He lost.

Judge Frank DeAngelis late Friday in state Superior Court, Morristown, rejected Mastrangelo’s request for an injunction to stop what he said were false attacks by Neibart against him. The ruling doesn’t end the case, but it does mean Neibart’s ads can continue through next week’s primary.

Just another round in the fierce intra-party battle for a Republican nomination for Morris County Commissioner.

This began a few weeks ago when Mastrangelo compared Neibart to, of all  people, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in claiming that Neibart supports “woke” culture and the indoctrination of children. This stems from Neibart attending a LGBT event last year in Mendham Township, where she was mayor, that featured a drag queen.

Clearly, Mastrangelo is trying to capitalize on the right’s nationwide unease over so-called woke culture and public school curriculum. And he’s not backing down. Just the other day, he said in a Facebook post that “Sarah will do anything to draw attention away from her liberal woke beliefs.”

Mastrangelo has been a freeholder/commissioner for 12 years, but this time around, he’s running “off the line.” Morris Republicans endorsed Neibart, incumbent Doug Cabana and former freeholder Christine Myers for the three available seats.

Laura Ali, the county chair, called Mastrangelo’s attacks “reprehensible.” Cabana and Myers sent out a letter calling them a lie and slanderous.

Neibart herself took to the attack recently with the ad that sent Mastrangelo to court looking for relief.

The ad assets the following:

Mastrangelo supported the county’s purchase of voting machines manufactured by Dominion because the company is “bankrolling his campaign.”

Also, Mastrangelo is under investigation by the state and that he has “multiple” criminal arrests.

Mastrangelo says all those points are false and that they were created with “actual malice.”  Using the word, “malice,” is no accident, given the fact a public official – like Mastrangelo – must show “malice” to prevail in a case such as this.

Some of Mastrangelo’s points are not off base.

There never was a specific vote by the commissioners on buying Dominion machines, so it’s hard to say – conclusively – that Mastrangelo voted for them.

Mastrangelo had an already-publicized “road rage”  incident a few years ago, but it’s hard to see that translating into “multiple arrests.”

However, we must remember that there ain’t much nuance to campaign ads.

Exaggerations and over-simplifications are what they’re all about. For example, Mastrangelo is certainly exaggerating the significance of Neibart attending a LGBT event.

The judge seemed to know that, even if his opinion doesn’t actually say so.

DeAngelis did conclude that Mastrangelo failed to demonstrate “by clear and convincing evidence that any of the statements at issue are false.” So there’s no injunction.

That ends the legal battle for the moment; hard feelings among Republicans over this saga likely will continue. Let’s keep in mind that even if he loses, Mastrangelo will remain on the board the rest of the year – almost seven months.

Three of the seven commissioners are trying to prevent that possibility.

A letter from John Krickus, Stephen Shaw and Deborah Smith endorsed Neibart and her running-mates and said Mastrangelo’s tactics are helping the Democrats. It claims that more than $100,000 being spent by the GOP committee on the primary would better be spent this fall against the Democrats.

Accusing a Republican of helping the Dems? Now, things are really getting nasty.