As Primary Day draws closer, the race to replace state Rep. Brian Wallace (D-South Boston) is heating up, with allegations of prank phone calls and stolen campaign literature.

Nick Collins's campaign charged yesterday that his campaign literature was being taken from porches by supporters of opponent Mark McGonagle. McGonagle's camp says the charges are baseless.

The Collins campaign said in a statement blasted out yesterday evening that a top McGonagle supporter "and one of our most well-known and respected community activists - was caught red-handed stealing literature from the doorsteps of the citizens of our district."

They declined to release the name of the community activist.

Martin Walsh, business manager for Laborers Union 223, said he saw it happen in the Polish Triangle — one of the district's Dorchester precincts. Walsh, who is the cousin of state Rep. Marty Walsh (D-Dorchester) and a Collins supporter, said, "This was uncalled for."

McGonagle campaign spokesman Anthony Gilardi says the allegations are untrue and that McGonagle is running a clean campaign.

"Mark McGonagle was the first candidate to commit to run a positive campaign. We have done that and will continue to do so," the campaign said in a statement put out last night on the social networking sites Twitter and Facebook.

The campaigns are also saying "prank phone calls" have hit the district.

In a post on their website headlined "Please be Aware of Prank Phone Calls," McGonagle's campaign says, "Please be advised that the McGonagle campaign has received numerous reports of phone calls from individuals alleging to represent our campaign. The caller is disrespectful, rude and uninformed about Mark or his campaign. In some cases the caller has loud music blaring in the background. If anyone receives one of these prank calls – we ask that you report it to our offices (857-496-1214) as we attempt to identify the source of these calls. The McGonagle campaign has run and will continue to run a clean, issues-oriented campaign. This effort is clearly just a 'cheap shot' directed at Mark."

The Collins camp had a similar statement on their website: "Over the past few weeks our campaign has received several complaints from residents indicating they have received phone calls from our campaign late at night. We are disappointed by these reports but want to stress for the record that these calls were not conducted by the Collins campaign."

The primary is Sept. 14. The other candidates running include fellow Democrats Michael McGee and Jacob Bombard.

The winner of the primary will face Republican Patrick Brennan on Nov. 2.