As state Sen. Parker Griffith’s (D) campaign continues to fight back against GOP attacks on his record from his days as a doctor, David Maker, whom Griffith beat in the 5th district Democratic primary, joined Republicans in expressing concern about Griffith’s work at Huntsville Hospital.

The tight open-seat race has heated up in recent weeks as Republican nominee Wayne Parker and the National Republican Congressional Committee have pointed to documents filed with Huntsville Hospital that allege Griffith under-treated cancer patients while working as a radiation oncologist at the hospital in the mid-1980s in an effort to increase profits.

“I knew about a lot of [Griffith’s] licensure problem from his former assistants before I even ran,” Maker said in an e-mail exchange with conservative radio host Dale Jackson of WVNN radio, which was read on the air Tuesday. “In fact it is common knowledge around [Huntsville]. … Given this common knowledge it appalled me that no one was challenging him. … So I went ahead with this painful activity.”

On Tuesday, the Griffith campaign released its second response ad to the attacks that Parker’s camp began a little more than a week ago. In his new ad, Griffith cites a letter from the chancellor of the American College of Radiation Oncology that praised Griffith’s medical record, and called Parker’s claims “nothing but a horrible political attack.”

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee went on the attack Tuesday with its own ad that vilified Parker for his background as a lobbyist. Last week, the DCCC circulated a release that criticized Parker for his efforts to lobby for the reinstatement of a disgraced Huntsville doctor in 2001.