Republican Mark Hayden, a Wilder lawyer making his first run for office, has talked often about how many doors he has knocked on during the campaign.

In an attack on Hayden's door-to-door efforts, Democrat Dennis Keene has mailed a piece of campaign material throughout the district that encourages voters not to allow Hayden the chance to make his front-porch pitch.

The mail features a picture of Hayden with a line through his face.

Over the picture is the line, "Don't Bother Knocking!"

Then, under this picture, is this: "Kentucky needs a state representative that will work to keep Kentucky jobs!"

Keene has criticized Hayden because his law firm, Greenbaum Doll & McDonald, has sponsored seminars on setting up manufacturing and other businesses in China, one of the world's fastest growing economies.

Hayden is a corporate lawyer and litigator and has nothing to do with the seminars.

But that has not stopped Keene and the Democrats from using outsourcing as an issue.

"But I believe the voters are way too smart for this kind of gutter politics," Hayden said Thursday.

"Keene has no choice but to run a negative campaign because he can't talk about the issues," Hayden said.

"It's important to know he will not debate me and not appear jointly with me," Hayden said.

"That tells you a lot about what kind of candidate he is."

Hayden said he recently mailed a "very positive" piece of campaign material to 15,000 voters.

The district covers Newport, Dayton, Bellevue, Southgate, Wilder and parts of Highland Heights.

"A 'no-knock' flier is not going to keep me from talking to the voters," he said.

Political consultant Eric Gentry, who is advising Keene, said Keene has appeared twice with Hayden - at a Kentucky Women in Action forum in August, and later in a joint television interview with the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.

"Dennis wants to talk about the issues," Gentry said. "And the issue that keeps coming up is Mark's law firm and how they are trying to encourage companies to send jobs overseas."

Hayden said he plans to discuss job creation on Oct. 19, when he and Gov. Ernie Fletcher tour two manufacturing plants in the district and then hold at 5:30 p.m. campaign rally at the Southgate Community Center.

Newport resident and former City Manager Jim Parsons said he was "frustrated" when he received the mailer.

Parsons, now the Boone County administrator, has been a staunch supporter of 67th District incumbent Rep. Jim Callahan, a Wilder Democrat retiring this year.

But Parsons said he wouldn't be supporting Keene. "I'm frustrated that his first mailer to the general electorate was not about himself or his vision of what he wants to do," Parsons said. "Instead, he makes some silly criticism of the law firm where Mark Hayden works, which is ludicrous."

Campbell County Commissioner Dave Otto, who helped draft Keene's campaign piece, said the criticism over job losses are not "silly" when a large employer such as Newport Steel in Wilder has cut workers. "Talk to a family that has lost the wage-earner and see if outsourcing of jobs is gutter politics," said Otto, a Fort Thomas Democrat. "Hayden is way out of touch with the 67th District's men and women."

Hayden said his firm has never benefited from any client outsourcing a job overseas. Hayden also said that outsourcing of jobs is a national issue that has nothing to do with him or his campaign.

"I had nothing to do with the job loss at Newport Steel," Hayden said. "That's a cheap shot ... and gutter politics."

E-mail pcrowley@enquirer.com