MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- The tradition of negative campaigning in South Florida elections has taken an ugly turn in one Miami Beach Commission race.

A flier sent to voters portrays candidate Maria Mayer as a potential criminal and lists her home telephone number, while insinuating that Sherry Roberts, one of her two opponents, is to blame.

Both women are incensed.

“This should not happen. This has no place in politics,” said Mayer, a first-time candidate who is a lawyer and mother of three children.

“I was just appalled,” said Roberts, who sent out an e-mail blast to voters saying so.

“I’m not willing to come out negatively to win,” said Roberts, a condominium board president. “I don’t think it’s good for Miami Beach. I don't think it's good for the residents of Miami Beach.”

Smear campaigns remain legal, though they are sometimes hard to trace.

The third candidate in the Miami Beach race, Jorge Exposito, did not return phone calls or e-mails to accept or deny responsibility.

Records show he recently spent $15,000 on campaign mailings through his consultant, who has worked with the organization called Tell The Public The Facts, Inc. that is listed on the negative flier’s return address. The consultant denies involvement in the flier.

The address for Tell the Public the Facts, Inc. turns out to be a mailing facility in southwest Miami-Dade County.

The group is listed as an Electioneering Communications Organization, groups known as “527s” for their Internal Revenue Service designations. They are legal political groups formed to influence elections but are unregulated by election law and exempt from filing public disclosure reports. Because of their private nature, they are often the vehicle for attack ads.

“I’d like to give residents and voters the benefit of the doubt that they can see though these things and are turned off by these things and are disgusted,” Mayer said.