Wil Cardon and Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake have taken it to the next level. Now they’re fighting over social media.

Cardon has been slamming Flake for being liberal on immigration, a radioactive issue in the Grand Canyon State.

Cardon was endorsed recently by Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee, a group which has been denounced by Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) and the Anti-Defamation League for its harsh rhetoric.

But Cardon has some immigration issues of his own. The Arizona Republic reported this month that Cardon’s businesses attracted the attention of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for hiring employees without properly documenting their immigration status.

All very interesting. Then Cardon’s campaign took to Facebook to accuse Flake’s folks of being racist. Hmm.

The social media mayhem started Tuesday when Flake supporter Shawnna Bolick tweeted out the Republic’s story.

“You can’t hide from [your] history. @Cardon2012 company’s hiring draws scrutiny I wonder if his driver is legal.”

A Flake campaign volunteer retweeted Bolnick, who is not actually with the campaign. Both feeds have since been locked.

Cardon doesn’t have a driver, but his staff assumed the Flake supporter referred to Cardon staffer Beq Montenegro.

“As a candidate for the U.S. Senate, Wil Cardon has gotten used to personal attacks directed at him,” a staff member wrote on the candidate’s Facebook page. “But when the Flake campaign uses social media to spread racist accusations against a Cardon staffer, that’s well beyond the line. Beq Montenegro is not merely a valuable part of our campaign — he’s a proud American citizen of Central American descent and the brother of an Arizona state representative.”

Montenegro is the brother of Arizona state GOP Rep. Steve Montenegro, the only Hispanic Arizona legislator to vote in favor of the state’s immigration law, SB 1070, most of which was struck down by the Supreme Court this summer.

“To use the color of Beq’s skin to suggest that he’s in the U.S. illegally is irresponsible and without a doubt, racist,” the post continues.

As far as HOH could determine, no one mentioned or alluded to Beq Montenegro or his skin color.

Anyway, it seems Cardon’s folks might have moved on. His Facebook page’s most recent post is about seeing a Flake campaign sign on the side of the road that was vandalized, and about how sad that made him: “It’s one thing to fight hard to win this campaign but it’s even more important to fight fair. Vandalizing a campaign sign is not fighting fair and it’s not indicative of the way any of us are running our campaigns. It’s my sincere hope that I won’t have to see another campaign sign vandalized.”

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