2010: The Tangled Web

Now the stories and accusations and mailers and signs are turning into websites.

Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Keller, unveiled CorporateGraveRobbers.com on Friday afternoon, playing off of an investment by an opponent's company in a cemetery that took a ghastly turn.

Giovanni Capriglione of Euless, one of three Republicans challenging Truitt in HD-98, works for Pacesetter Capital. That company invested in Arizona-based Perpetua, which in turn owns and operates a cemetery outside of Chicago that's under investigation for digging up remains from 300 gravesites and then reselling the gravesites to new customers. Truitt's website, complete with coffins and grave-digging (no pictures, thanks) and sound effects, links to stories and documents related to the trouble at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. Expect an ad campaign to follow — mail, etc. — any minute.

She's not the only one having fun with the Internet. Go to the TruittBlewIt.com site, and you'll find "Vickipedia" — a set of documents from Capriglione's campaign  kicking the incumbent on issues ranging from health care to taxes to needle exchanges. It appears to serve the same function, documenting the claims one candidate is making against another. Capriglione is amplifying the message with yard signs. He and another candidate, Rich DeOtte, each paid for signs saying, "Truitt Blew It" and pull them all over the North Tarrant County district one night this week, the better to spread the word as people went to work the next morning. The website picks up that theme.