HOUSTON — The rough-and-tumble campaign for state representative in District 149 escalated as police arrested a campaign supporter for Republican candidate Al Hoang for allegedly threatening his opponent’s supporter with a boxcutter.

On Monday afternoon, a Hoang campaign volunteer, Peter Vo, reportedly brandished a boxcutter at an early voting location and cut through a banner that called Hoang a Communist. That’s quite the insult in this southwest Houston district, which is slightly under 20 percent Vietnamese. The campaigns have accused each other of not being sufficiently anti-Communist.

For the first time, Democratic incumbent Hubert Vo — unrelated to Peter — is facing a fellow Vietnamese-American; Republicans think the neutralizing of that ethnic dynamic could make the 149th District a pickup opportunity for them.

After slicing through the banner outside Alief Library, Peter Vo allegedly swung the boxcutter at a Hubert Vo supporter, Phach Nguyen, who works for City Councilman Richard Nguyen, who ousted Hoang from council in 2013.

Hoang’s campaign disavowed the volunteer’s actions.

“No matter how inflammatory the sign in question was, we do not condone any behavior that would make someone else feel that their safety was in jeopardy,” the campaign said in a statement.

Police reportedly arrested Peter Vo on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.