Lawsuit calls out dark money politics.

Last week, Orange County Property Appraiser Rick Singh announced he was suing someone.

And at first, I wasn’t sure I cared. I mean, let’s be honest: Just saying the words “property appraiser” is like taking half a Sominex.

But this week, I got a chance to really study Singh’s lawsuit. And I have to tell you: I’m now very interested. And I think you will be, too. Why? Because Singh’s lawsuit has the potential to blow this town wide open.

To change the way elections are run. To put an end to anonymous attacks. To force accountability.

And maybe even to reduce the number of garbage-style ads that clutter our mailboxes each year.

So, for all those reasons, I say: Go, Rick, go!

Singh’s lawsuit revolves around a string of anonymous attacks leveled at him during his campaign — attacks that claimed he had a checkered past and which repeatedly warned voters that “Rick” wasn’t his given name.

His real name, the mailers stressed, was … wait for it … “PARMANAND.”

That’s right, folks. The senders want you to know his name was FOREIGN-SOUNDING!

This was supposed to freak you out. At least that’s what the senders — who Singh said spent more than $3 million bashing him — seemed to be hoping.

But apparently it didn’t. Singh, a Democrat, still cruised to re-election, beating his Republican challenger, Eddie Aguillera, 61 percent to 39 percent.

The technical term for such a margin is “tail-whuppin’.”

Still, you have to ask yourself: Who cares enough about the property appraiser’s race to spend that much money?

That’s what Singh wants to know … or rather to prove. Because Singh says he’s confident he knows where the attacks came from — big property owners who were trying to scare him into cutting them breaks on their tax bills.

“These are corporate bullies who are accustomed to bullying elected officials,” Singh said Wednesday. OK, but who exactly? Singh suggested I look at the companies that have been most upset by his property valuations.

I immediately recalled the stories we have written about theme parks and tourism companies who have challenged his assessments and asked: “Is that who you mean?”

That’s what Singh said he is hoping to confirm. He wants to force the people who funded the attacks against him — including claims that Singh said were libelous, wrongly accusing him of being involved in criminal cases — to identify themselves and own up to the attacks they funded.

That is the part of this lawsuit I most agree with.

See, I don’t really care about Rick Singh’s political future. I’m not even sure I care about Rick, period. (Sorry, Rick.)

But I care a lot about transpar-

ency. And accountability.

And I’m sick and tired of wellfinanced cowards, people with an endless supply of money but a short supply of courage who casually throw around nasty accusations — against both Republicans and Democrats in all levels of races — simply because they’re confident they will never have to answer for them.

“These people just laugh and joke about it while they do it,” said Singh’s attorney, GOP stalwart Frank Kruppenbacher. “But it deters good people from running for public office.”

“We want to send a message,” Kruppenbacher continued. “You may think you’re cute. But you run the risk of being exposed.”

That’s the potential power of this lawsuit.

To show you how well-cloaked these attack groups are, consider the two groups that teamed up to beat on Singh.

Both had sunny-sounding names: “For a Better Orange County” and “Leadership for Florida Future.”

But details about their funding are covered in a maze of records.

The president of for the “Orange County” group, for instance, is actually a lawyer in Fort Myers … who took money from a “policy institute” with legal papers out of Delaware … and who cut checks to firms in Washington, D.C., and Tallahassee.

There are lots of peripheral ties to traditional Republican politicos. For instance, the group’s treasurer, Scott Barnhart, worked on a campaign for former U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez. But for the most part, the funders’ tracks are well hidden. True profiles in courage. Oh, and there’s another potentially intriguing twist to this story.

Though Singh wouldn’t name those he suspects of funding the attacks against him until he has proof, I noticed some of the same tourism companies that have complained about Singh’s appraisals also donated to Singh’s campaign.

So I asked: “Do you believe there were companies donating to your face and then funding attacks against you behind your … ?”

“Absolutely,” he said without even letting me finish the question. “Absolutely.”

Now that would be fun to expose.