A conservative Texas politician's ill-timed Facebook post poking fun at California this week drew criticism as residents of the Western state battled wildfires that have forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

"Hey California, heard a picture is worth a thousand words. TEXAS Let’s see if it’s also worth a 1,000+LIKES...," state Rep. Pat Fallon posted said on his campaign's page Wednesday.

Accompanying the post was a drawing of the state of Texas kicking the state of California in the southern part of the state.

One commenter posted: "California is on fire and is in desperate need of help. Homes and livestock are burning up. Yeah, it’s really funny. Ha. Ha."

From another: "No need to bash another state. California is burning right now, people are suffering."



Fallon, who represents Denton County, responded to some of the negative comments, saying he was unaware of the fires and was merely making sport of West Coast liberals.

He wrote: "this is just innocent humor. It’s a couple of stick figures for goodness sakes. Second, I wasn’t even aware of the fires in CA. Been focused on our campaign. Third, this has nothing whatsoever to do with the fires. Those are awful and we pray for the victims and first responders. This is aimed at the liberal lunacy in the CA state gov’t. Fifth, thanks for your past support. Quite honestly if someone posted a pic of CA kicking TX it wouldn’t bother me in the least. We have a rivalry and certainly very different political visions. It was intended to be taken very lightly. God bless you and hope you have a Merry Christmas."

He also wrote: "TX is awesome and while CA has beautiful weather and topography their gov’t is leading them down the path of Third World Status. I hope the fires are out ASAP. Didn’t even know about them when I posted this. Geez."

He also had some backers post on Facebook, including one who simply responded to the kicking comic with "LOVE IT."

Late Thursday, it appeared the post had been deleted.