Topeka ? Republican U.S. Senate candidate Milton Wolf is the target of an investigation by the Kansas Board of Healing Arts, according to a story published Wednesday by the Topeka Capital-Journal. But Wolf says the probe is part of a political smear campaign being orchestrated by Sen. Pat Roberts and by one particular member of the board.

“This instance is a new low for Healing Arts Board Member Anne Hodgdon that rises to the level of official misconduct,” the Wolf campaign said in a statement released after the newspaper report was published.

The Board of Healing Arts is the state agency that licenses and regulates health care professionals. Wolf, a Johnson County radiologist, is a Tea Party-backed candidate who is challenging Roberts in the Aug. 5 Republican primary.

Hodgdon, who lives in Lenexa, was appointed to the board in 2011 by Gov. Sam Brownback. At that time, she served on the board of directors of KidsTLC, a psychiatric treatment center for children, in Olathe. A spokesman for KidsTLC said she is no longer on that board.

Hodgdon did not return calls from the Journal-World seeking comment.

In February, the Capital-Journal reported that Wolf had posted graphic X-ray images of people who’d been killed or injured by gunshots, along with dark, humorous comments about them, on a personal Facebook page.

On Wednesday, the newspaper reported that it had received a letter from an attorney for the board requesting copies of those images. That letter came five months after the original story was published, but just two weeks before the Aug. 5 primary.

The images had already been removed from the page when the first news story was published, and the Capital-Journal did not disclose how it obtained copies of them.

Roberts has used that story as part of his own campaign, arguing that it shows Wolf is unethical and unfit to serve in the U.S. Senate.

But Wolf, who admitted posting the material and apologized for it, has claimed that the leak to the Capital-Journal was part of a smear campaign being orchestrated by Roberts and his supporters.

On Wednesday, Wolf alleged that Hodgdon has been the source of numerous leaks to the Topeka newspaper, including one published in March about Wolf’s enthusiasm for assault rifles, including a Ruger SR-556, which he purchased from Hodgdon’s husband, J.B. Hodgdon, who is a licensed gun dealer.

That story quoted Hodgdon as saying she was uncomfortable with Wolf’s repeated references to the gun on the campaign trail. That story identified Hodgdon as “a prominent Kansas Republican,” but did not identify her as a member of the Board of Healing Arts.

According to federal campaign finance reports, Hodgdon and her husband each contributed $2,600 to Roberts’ campaign in September 2013.

Wolf also posted on his campaign website a document containing screen shots of numerous Twitter posts from Hodgdon that are critical of Wolf. Most of those are re-tweets from the Roberts campaign or Roberts supporters.

Among those was a post dated July 20 from Sara Little, spokeswoman in Roberts’ Senate office, who referenced a Kansas City Star editorial that said, “Rather than run for office, he should be facing a medical ethics inquiry.”

Kathleen Selzler Lippert, executive director of the Board of Healing Arts, confirmed Wednesday that Hodgdon had recused herself from any board proceedings that might involve Wolf. She said Hodgdon submitted the recusal in late February, around the same time the first story about the Facebook posts was published.

Lippert said state law would not allow her to confirm the investigation or say whether the board had received complaints against Wolf.

Leroy Towns, Roberts’ campaign manager, said the campaign had nothing to do with the board’s investigation of Wolf.

“Every time he gets accused of something, he blames somebody else,” Towns said. “In this case, he has nobody to blame but himself. He is not the victim.”