North Miami Beach mayoral candidate Anthony DeFillipo is suing the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union for a mailer that suggests the Italian-American commissioner is a Soprano-like mob boss who plays fast and loose with the law. The two-sided attack ad, riddled with spelling mistakes, describes other candidates in the City Commission race as “Tony ‘Soprano’ Defilippo’s crime family,” assigning vaguely offensive nicknames to each in turn.

“This is a hate crime. This is an ethnic slur. This is no different than if any other ethnicity was attacked,” said DeFillipo’s lawyer, Michael Pizzi. Pizzi filed the defamation suit in Miami-Dade court early Tuesday, seeking more than $2 million dollars in damages to his client’s reputation.