PORTLAND (AP) — The newest member of the Oregon Legislature has something on his record no politician would want.

Matt Wingard, a Wilsonville Republican appointed last month to fill the vacant seat in Oregon House District 26, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in 2002 after he hit his son on the head with a screwdriver.

Wingard is on the Nov. 4 ballot, and is opposed by Jessica Adamson, a Democrat, and Marc Delphine, a Libertarian. Last week, the House Democrats’ campaign committee, Future PAC, mailed campaign literature that focused on the screwdriver assault.

Wingard says the ad misrepresents the facts, but Adamson says she stands by its accuracy. “This is a race that is really about character,” she told The Oregonian newspaper. “I believe voters deserve to have the full measure of my record and his record before they decide this election.”

Wingard first brought up the assault case in January, contacting the news media to say he hit his then 7-year-old son on the head in anger in 2001, leaving a bump on the boy’s head. He went on to win the Republican primary in May and then got appointed to the seat when Rep. Jerry Krummel resigned to take a job in Nevada.

Wingard has denied other allegations of abuse. Court records, however, show the boy’s mother said in 2004 that the assault was part of a history of abusive behavior.

Wingard said the other allegations were made to “gain an advantage” in a contentious custody battle.

The mother, Stacy Pico, told The Oregonian Monday night that she stands by the statements she filed in court. She said Wingard has matured since the assault case, and she acknowledged signing a statement earlier this year saying that she and her son supported his effort to become a legislator.

But when told that Wingard said none of her allegations were true, she noted that the abusive treatment was documented by her son’s pediatrician at the time.

“I’m not going to support him if he’s going to lie about it,” she said.