Nevertheless, state Rep. Julia Hurley, R-Lenoir City, said she's infuriated that visitors to the website known as hurleyforhouse.com are immediately directed to the website of Kent Calfee, her opponent in the August Republican primary.
Both candidates said they were unaware of the website redirect until informed Friday by the News Sentinel. Local blogger Brian Hornback noted it on his site, Shock and Awe.
Hurley promptly cast blame on Calfee and his supporters.
But she also admitted that she didn't know the registration status of hurleyforhouse.com, launched two years ago during her inaugural campaign, and she didn't know whether her camp has been maintaining it. It appears someone took over the registration June 16.
"I think that this is dirty politics at its best," Hurley said. "I think Mr. Calfee should be ashamed of himself and if he did not do it, he should reprimand whoever in his camp did."
"And if he doesn't know who did it, he should find out."
Calfee on Friday said he, too, was surprised to learn of the Hurley campaign site redirect.
"I'm not technically savvy," he said. "I called my wife, and she says evidently the (website) registration was not maintained.
"I would assume that if you're holding office and you had a website, you would maintain the control of it."
The website domain registration is parked with domainsbyproxy.com, operated by GoDaddy.com, which keeps the domain name-holder anonymous.