The open letter, dated June 6 and signed by Reginald Bolding, Devin Del Palacio, Zel Fowler, Tyre McKay, Tanya Norwood, Tia Oso, Channel Powe and Cymone Ragland, was blunt.

"The racialized derogatory language by a prominent Black professional and political figure is a prime example of what is missing in leadership in Arizona's Black Community," they wrote. "The language used in the Op-Ed is disrespectful, divisive and bigoted. This is truly disappointing to see in public discourse. True leadership is not backbiting, mudslinging and name calling. True leadership creates opportunities both vertically and laterally, and does not shut the door behind itself once one reaches a certain level of success."

We called the Arizona Informant to speak with Campbell, but he was not in the office. We left a message.

Stewart, who is supported by Campbell, hasn't made any public comments about Campbell's column.

"Stewart has never run for public office before, and his approach was not to get into the mud and talk publicly about these things and keep them going," said Scott Phelps, a campaign spokesman. "He wants to talk about other issues."

Phelps said when buttons with the words "Bigot Warren Stewart" written on them were passed around, Stewart also refrained from making comments and fanning those flames.

He added that Stewart did call Campbell privately and told him that he hoped everyone in all the campaigns could take a higher road and avoid the labeling and name-calling.

"We can always debate the wisdom of whether that the right thing to do -- to talk to him privately instead of making a public statement -- but that is the road we ended up on," Phelps said.

Read the letter in its entirety: