CONCORD — The race for the Republican nomination for the District 9 state Senate seat is heating up, with charges and counter charges between GOP candidates Ken Hawkins and Andy Sanborn.

Sanborn, who was District 7 senator until he resigned earlier this summer when he moved to Bedford, is facing off against Hawkins, a five-term representative from Bedford.

The two have clashed frequently during the campaign, and Tuesday Hawkins filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office claiming two mailings done for Sanborn over the weekend violate the state’s election laws.

Sanborn said the complaint is yet another in a long line of accusations and innuendoes by Hawkins as he practices “the politics of personal destruction.”

One mailer links Hawkins and President Obama, saying they use the same liberal playbook and will continue to raise taxes. It was distributed by Conservative Senate PAC, with a Strafford address, which Hawkins said belongs to District. 4 state Sen. James Forsythe, who endorsed Sanborn for the District 9 seat.

Hawkins said the Secretary of State’s office confirmed the political action committee (PAC) is not registered.

The second mailer compares the records on Sanborn and Hawkins on gun rights legislation and was sent by NH Citizens for Truth PAC with a Derry address that Hawkins says is a U.S. Postal Service mailbox in a strip mall.

Hawkins said the Secretary of State’s office said the PAC is registered to do “voter education and issue advocacy,” not to make independent expenditures of behalf of candidates.

Hawkins also took issue with the information in the gun rights mailer, saying Sanborn did not vote on several of the bills he claims he did.

“I would ask for an immediate investigation into these two serous violations of election law on behalf of State Senate Candidate Andy Sanborn,” Hawkins wrote the Attorney General.

He accused Sanborn of using the illegal mailers to launch a smear campaign against him.

“It’s time for Andy Sanborn to tell the truth to voters about what he is doing. I stand behind the material I give to voters, while Andy Sanborn is trying to deceive them using illegal PACs and breaking election laws,” Hawkins said. “This is not the kind of personal character voters expect or want in their State Senate.”

Sanborn rejected Hawkins’ charges, saying it is Hawkins who is doing the deceiving.

“I have no connections to those mailers,” Sanborn said. “Everything I do will have my name on it. And everything I do will be about fixing the problems in the state, not personal attacks.”

He said Hawkins thinks he can get away with insulting the voters of District. 9 “not to mention me and my wife, but that’s politics to some people.”

He said he has gone door-to-door from Bedford to Richmond talking to voters about the state’s problems and what they are concerned about.

“Ken Hawkins pounded a couple of lawn signs in and then decided to go on a personal vendetta,” Sanborn said. “Not once in this entire campaign has he criticized my voting record, but if you publish that statement he’ll find something to disagree with.”

District 9 changed considerably when the political boundaries were redrawn this year. What once was a district that included Bedford, Merrimack and towns to the west, now stretches from Bedford to Richmond in the Monadnock Region.

One-term Sen. Ray White, R-Bedford, decided not to seek reelection, leaving the seat open.

The Republican primary winner will face off against Democrat Lee Nyquist of New Boston.

The primary is Sept. 11.

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Garry Rayno may be reached at grayno@unionleader.com.