Lance Dutson didn’t set out to become a thorn in the side of the Maine Office of Tourism.

Working from his Searsmont home doing Web site development and assisting his tourism-related clients, Dutson only gradually concluded that the state’s major tourism funding agency, with its $7 million-plus annual budget, is ineffective, even competing with some of his clients.

Along the way, Dutson, 33, started voicing his complaints on his own Web site, including pokes at Dann Lewis, the tourism office director.

The latest bite got personal: Dutson’s Web site blog pointed out that Sherry Lewis, the director’s wife, has a Maine vanity license plate on her car that reads “ILOVENY.”

Dutson questioned the wisdom of touting another state’s marketing slogan when Dann Lewis is paid to promote Maine.

That was striking enough to make national news programs last weekend – and provoke some harsh words from Dann Lewis himself.

Contacted Wednesday, Lewis called Dutson “a congenital liar” whose “off-the-wall” and “vicious personal attacks on my wife are inexcusable.”

It wasn’t the first time Dutson has attracted heated attention.

Earlier this year, a New York firm contracted by the tourism office to do Maine’s promotion sued Dutson in federal court for libel, defamation and copyright infringement involving postings on his blog. The suit was dropped about a week after it was filed.

The state’s tourism promotion bureaucracy might seem like a frivolous target for such sharp and focused criticism – but not when you consider that tourism has become Maine’s biggest industry, Dutson said in an interview. The state says tourism accounts for $13.6 billion annually in sales of goods and services.

In a sit-down interview last week at a Belfast coffee shop, Dutson seemed an unlikely candidate to inspire controversy. He is a soccer dad with a child and two stepchildren. Articulate and thoughtful, he looks very much like – well, a state bureaucrat with his button-down shirt and rimless glasses – hardly the wild-eyed conspiracy theorist one might expect.

Born in Manchester, N.H., and raised in Fairfax, Va., Dutson moved to Maine at age 20. His wife worked for a time at the Camden-area Chamber of Commerce, and many of Dutson’s Web clients are bed-and-breakfast inn owners, he said, which exposes him to the world of tourism marketing.

Though the state is claiming this season is the best since 2000, Dutson said he remains skeptical. He describes the state’s strategy as “take what you can get,” while speakers at the tourism office’s annual conference reported that Maine is losing market share to other states and Canadian provinces.

“I know they’re trying to do some things,” Dutson said, such as directing longtime visitors to inland locations.

Dann Lewis counters that Dutson has no real experience in tourism, while Lewis has worked for 35 years in the field in airlines, hotels and marketing.

In fact, Dann Lewis worked on the famous “I Love New York” campaign for that state.

Sherry Lewis, a native New Yorker, secured her now-famous vanity plate after the Sept. 11 attacks to show support for her former city, her husband said Wednesday.

While TV ads and image campaigns are still vital tourism promotion venues, the Web is increasingly a major source and battleground for tourism issues as well.

A distinctive Web feature – search engine marketing – is an example of why Dutson started making noise.

Search engine marketing is a way for businesses to get their Web addresses under the noses of people searching for information about the products or services the advertisers are selling.

The most widely used version was pioneered by Google. If a business makes left-handed, yellow and beige faux leather widgets, it could bid on getting its listing to appear at the top of a Google results page on a search for “left-handed yellow beige faux leather widgets.” The sponsored Web sites are listed in a shaded box and along the right side of the results page.

With the state tourism office bidding and winning the top spot on popular searches such as “Camden Maine” and “Boothbay Harbor,” Dutson said, would-be vacationers were being directed to the state’s “visitmaine.com” site.

Instead, he argues, sponsored listings for such targeted searches should be left to inns, motels and campgrounds in the local area.

“It’s such a nerdy issue, and it’s hard to comprehend,” Dutson said. But the matter is keenly important, especially to small businesses.

“I’m really fascinated with that whole world of search engines. I love statistics,” Dutson said, calling the targeted ads a “great and nimble tool.”

Another distinctive Web feature is Dutson’s blog, www.mainewebreport.com.

Earlier this year, it included information previewing a Maine tourism ad – downloaded from the state’s Web site – that contained an 800 telephone number that was actually a “sex talk” line. The telephone number had been arbitrarily set in the draft ad before an actual number was secured.

Dutson’s site also has criticized the state for hiring a New York firm, and it includes an e-mail from Sherry Lewis (signed by both Dann and Sherry Lewis) to a former friend. It includes some strong language.

Dutson defends using the personal message, saying it is evidence of a personal link between the Lewises and a New York marketing firm.

Dann Lewis said the e-mail was “a very personal exchange” and that Dutson “has no idea what that’s about. There is a lot of background to that.”

Lewis said he believes the demeanor Dutson projects publicly is not consistent with his online persona, which Lewis characterizes as outrageous and reckless.

When facing the New York firm’s lawsuit, which could have meant a damage award of more than $1 million, Dutson said, he discussed the matter with his family. “It was scary,” he said.

To the question, “Why are you doing this?” Dutson replied that he didn’t want to acquiesce in being “sued into silence. I’m not going to give up and say, ‘OK, you’re right,’ when I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Dutson said he believes firing arrows at public officials is a good thing, keeping them accountable to the public they serve. It’s part of a noble tradition, he argues, dating to the pamphleteers of the Revolutionary War period.

Still, he said he doesn’t relish the prospect of more litigation or similar battles.

“I’m not going to be the First Amendment poster child ever again in my life,” he said.