A Republican state assemblyman has retained legal counsel in response to attacks against his family-owned business which he claims is the work of his Democratic challengers and their supporters.

A Republican state assemblyman has retained legal counsel in response to attacks against his family-owned business which he claims is the work of his Democratic challengers and their supporters.

Assemblyman Parker Space, R-24th Dist., confirmed on Thursday that he has hired legal counsel to explore potential litigation against Democratic state Assembly candidates Kate Matteson and Gina Trish and their campaign manager for allegedly impacting his family's 90-year-old business, Space Farms Zoo and Museum in Wantage, by engaging in online activities designed to discredit the zoo's reputation.

Space has been embroiled in controversy for over a week after he posted a photo on Facebook of himself and his wife, Jill, posing in front of a Confederate flag at a Hank Williams Jr. and Lynyrd Skynyrd concert on Aug. 26 with the caption: "Tailgating waiting for Hank. Hope no one is offended! LOL."

In a statement to Insider NJ, an online political site, Space responded to comments made by Matteson and Trish about his ability to represent the legislative district going forward, stating: "Democrat candidates Trish and Matteson have bigger worries ... Their campaign and their county Democrat committee have made themselves party to an effort aimed at destroying a 90-year-old family business through personal harassment, liable, an aggressive economic boycott, and restraint of trade."

Trish and Matteson responded via email on Thursday evening.

"Parker Space can try to hide behind false allegations and baseless accusations, but if his business is being hurt it's all due to his own actions," the statement read. "The fact is that people in New Jersey don't like confederate sympathizers.

While Space wastes time with idle threats, we remain focused on policy that will help improve the quality of life for our families and neighbors."

At Wednesday night's Skylands Tea Party meeting, Space said the zoo employees have been subject to harassing phone calls since the story broke about the Confederate flag photo.

"We had phone calls coming in to the zoo, to our business number, which was posted on social media and different sites to call and harass and close down Space Farms," he said. "Our employees were getting calls saying, 'Hey, you guys are racist, you're no good.' All kinds of names they were calling us."

Space said it got to the point that the family told employees not to answer the phone, which impacted business.

Four days after the now-infamous photo, Trish and Matteson's campaign manager, Ben Silva, checked into Space Farms at 12:34 a.m. on Facebook and gave the zoo a "poor" rating.

Silva was asked about his social media activity on Wednesday and said via text message, "I've been there (Space Farms) a few times and only now got around to giving my own honest opinion."

A since-deleted Facebook page titled "Boycott Space Farms" was also created in the days following the release of the Confederate flag photo, although who was responsible is not clear.

"This is the mentality that the far-left has," Space said on Wednesday night. "It's that they don't care about if they have a grudge against myself, maybe a picture that my wife and I put on Facebook, which was good-heartedly (done) and I'm sure everyone here understands that's that. But it goes beyond that, it goes deeper. It goes against myself and my wife, my employees ... they want to put a 90-year-old business out."

On Thursday afternoon, Space said he would ask his newly hired attorney to reach out to the New Jersey Herald to answer questions about what potential legal avenues Space Farms might pursue. The following statement from the Space family was emailed shortly afterward: "The Space family has retained an experienced local attorney to do preliminary work on this and will be interviewing several trial attorneys with experience in these matters to take this forward. They are only 48 hours into this process."

���

David Danzis can also be contacted on Facebook: ddanzisNJH, on Twitter: @ddanzisNJH, or by phone: 973-383-1274.