Politician who made headlines for dog 'air swim' and Hooters article is in hot water again

Whether carving her initials in a state-owned desk or posting a video of her dog being held outside a moving car for an “air swim,” Julia Hurley spent much of her two-year term in the Tennessee legislature battling self-created controversy.

Eight years and a new political post later, Hurley is at again — posting a video announcing her move outside the Loudon County Commission district she was elected to serve.

That video is now the basis of a lawsuit aiming to remove her from office, a legal action she insists is a political assassination plot by three fellow Republicans — 9th Judicial District Attorney General Russell Johnson and Loudon County Commissioners Henry Cullen and Van Shaver.

It will be up to Loudon County Chancellor Frank Vernon Williams III to decide if Hurley can keep her 2nd District seat on the commission. He refused late last month to toss the lawsuit out before trial, though defense attorney T. Scott Jones is expected to seek an appeal of Williams’ decision.

Johnson denies any political conspiracy and says Hurley signed her own commission seat death warrant.

“Our position is that she forfeited her seat when she moved outside of her district,” Johnson told Knox News. “Ms. Hurley’s is a political office, so if my friend and colleague, Mr. Jones, wants to call the filing of (ouster) action to redress a wrong within a political office ‘politically motivated,' then so be it.”

Jones counters that Hurley told Johnson the move was temporary, but he sued anyway at the urging of Cullen — who is listed as a plaintiff in the ouster suit — and Shaver, who currently serves in the district where Hurley’s new house is located.

“Commissioner Hurley has not done anything wrong,” Jones told Knox News. “We are confident that the equities will lie in the favor of Commissioner Hurley, and we are concerned that Mr. Shaver seems so intent on attacking another commissioner rather than concentrating on the issues that should concern him as an elected official.”

Cullen did not respond to a request for comment.

Shaver said Hurley only has herself to blame.

"There is absolutely no political motives to any of the problems Ms. Hurley created for herself," Shaver said. "The only person at any fault here is Ms. Hurley. She moved from her elected district and refused to return."

Courting controversy

A former model, Hurley launched her political career in 2010 in a bid for the state House of Representatives 32nd District — which includes Roane County and Lenoir City in Loudon County — amid a voter surge against incumbents spurred in large part by the tea party movement within the Republican Party. She was 29.

During the campaign, racy photos surfaced from her modeling days and her stint as a server at Hooters while attending Maryville College, drawing national media attention. Hurley blamed a disgruntled fellow Republican.

It didn’t take long for the political newbie in the state House of Representatives to again attract national media attention, carving her initials in the desk assigned her in the legislature and insisting it was “tradition.” It wasn’t, at least in the state Capitol. She paid for repairs.

She wound up in the news again after writing an article in a Hooters Restaurant magazine crediting her work as a Hooters server for her political success.

She followed that up with a video posting, showing her dog Pepper being held out the window of a moving vehicle and calling it an “air swim.” Animal rights activists across the nation lambasted her as the video went viral.

Hurley was handily defeated by current Rep. Kent Calfee in the 2012 Republican primary. After a stint on the Tennessee State Executive Committee for the Republican Party, Hurley was elected in 2018 to a seat on the Loudon County Commission.

A year later, Hurley announced on Facebook she would soon be returning from a trip to Texas to take up residency at a new home she’d bought in Loudon County. There was just one problem: That home was outside her commission district.

Cover-up or a real estate flip?

Johnson and Assistant District Attorney General Jason Collver say in court records reviewed by Knox News that Hurley didn’t realize her new home was outside her district and had already leased her home inside the 2nd commission district to a real estate colleague.

Instead of admitting her mistake, the pair allege, Hurley cooked up a cover story after consulting with an unidentified fellow politician.

“She consulted a friend who advised her, telling her what she should say,” Johnson wrote in a December 2019 letter to Jones.

That friend, Johnson wrote, told her to claim the move was “temporary,” so she did.

“Instead of admitting she made a mistake and taking action to correct her mistake, she is maintaining an untruthful position that is easily rebutted by her own actions, her own statements on social media and to others, as well as her post discovery response to her mistake conduct,” Johnson wrote.

Jones counters that Hurley never intended to permanently live in the new house outside her district and instead plans to spruce it up and resell it. He says the mortgage lender, though, is requiring that she live in the home for a year as a condition of financing.

She’ll be back in the 2nd District, Jones wrote, by September.

“Obviously she is in the real estate business and she still maintains both homes, and in fact the utilities on the 2nd District home are in her name and she is anticipating occupying both homes so it should render the issue moot,” Jones told Knox News.

Johnson says he isn’t buying it and intends to press forward with the ouster suit.

“She intended this to be a permanent move,” Johnson said. “She had already signed the contract to buy the house, she closed on it, moved and then sought advice and was told to say it was a ‘temporary move’ in order to try and correct her mistake. To now say it was ‘temporary’ is disingenuous at best.”

Email Jamie Satterfield at jamie.satterfield@knoxnews.com and follow her on Twitter @jamiescoop. If you enjoy Jamie's coverage, support strong local journalism by subscribing for full access to all our content on every platform.