'Hope No One Is Offended! Lol' Sussex Assemblyman Says As He Posts Confederate Flag Photo

WANTAGE, NJ — Assemblyman Parker Space, a Republican representing the 24th District, is standing by a Facebook photo showing him with a Confederate flag after some called the photo offensive. In the photo, Space and his wife can be seen posing with the so-called "Hank Williams Jr. Rebel Flag" before a Hank Williams Jr. concert in upstate New York.

"Tailgating waiting for Hank [Williams Jr.]," Space wrote in the Facebook post (see a screenshot of the post below). "Hope no one is offended! Lol."

He stood by his photo in a statement sent to Patch, saying, "Are you really trying to go there? It was a Lynyrd Skynyrd and Hank Williams Jr. concert and I was there with about 20,000 others. Are you saying that those bands are racist? I am sure the African-American members of Hank's touring band wouldn't think so. Thank goodness it wasn't an Ozzie Osbourne or KISS performance, then you would accuse me a being a Nazi or a satanist."

Space expanded on his defense in an emailed statement Tuesday afternoon, saying the "working people that I am a part of" have their "own sense of humor."

"[The post] appears to have offended some people. I am sorry if you don't understand our sense of humor. I come from a place where you call the big guy 'tiny' as a joke. Maybe you have to bale hay to get it. So no offense meant, if any of you were truly offended," Space wrote.

Williams, a Southern rock and blues singer, has used Confederate flag imagery on T-shirts and promotional items before. The flag in the photo, currently unavailable online, has the inscription "If the South would've won, we would've had it made." The first half of the sentence is cut off in Space's photo.

Space has previously drawn ire from the public for abstaining on a vote to condemn Confederate displays in New Jersey in 2015. He was the only member of the Assembly to abstain, and the measure passed unanimously, NJ.com reported.

Democratic challengers Kate Matteson and Gina Trish spoke out against the photo, calling it "unfitting of a sitting State Assemblyman."

"He should be held accountable for his actions. The only flag we pledge our allegiance to is the American flag, representing union and equality," the two wrote on Facebook.

Sussex County is solidly Republican, with 62 percent of the vote going to Donald Trump in 2016. In 2013, his last election year, Space was elected to the Assembly with 33.8 percent of the vote (Alison McHose, a Republican representing the district, received 36 percent). Both received more than double the votes of their Democratic challengers.

As of Tuesday morning, it appeared Space's personal website, where he shares campaign updates and information, had been removed. He did not respond to questions from Patch asking if the removal was intentional or the result of a technical issue.

Also See: The Many Symbols Of The Modern White Power Movement

Image via edward stojakovic, Flickr