LAS VEGAS-Although filing day is still five weeks away, the dirty tricks have already begun in the Democratic-targeted 6th Senate District, home to incumbent Republican state Sen. Bob Beers.

Allison Copening, the Democrat who recently left her post as spokesperson for the Las Vegas Valley Water District in order to challenge Beers, is the subject of a Web site, allisoncopening.info, which purports to be supportive of her candidacy, but is filled with thinly-veiled mockery and sarcasm.

"Allison Copening is a very experienced corporate spokesperson," the Web site reads.  "She has told Nevadans what some very large corporations wanted them to hear, and now she wants to do that for your state government."

Copening, reached for comment Monday, was unconcerned about the site, describing it as "a bit humorous."

"I guess I made the mistake of not reserving the ‘.info' domain name so somebody else grabbed it up," said Copening.  "I think once I get my website up, if you take a look at what the truth is, then people will also find it quite humorous."

Copening believes that her work in community outreach and in her various public relations roles will largely insulate her from this and similar efforts to discredit her.

"So many people know my history and my work history, and my non-profit serving, that it's kind of laughable," she said.  "I'm sure people who know me will probably be perturbed by the Web site, but I find it quite humorous."  

Copening left her position with the water district at the beginning of the month in order to campaign full-time, but will continue doing contract work for them.

"I know it was reported [in the Las Vegas Review-Journal] that I was resigning as a result of a conflict of interest.  It really wasn't that there was a conflict of interest, it was moreso that in order to run in this race effectively, I needed to campaign full-time," said Copening.

"Because I was working for a quasi-governmental agency, I wanted none of their time to be interfered with through campaigning."

Copening expects to officially launch her campaign by the end of the month.