Site removes photos of state rep candidate

Hurley, seeking 32nd House District seat, says pictures 'artistic'

By Bob Fowler knoxnews.com
Photographs taken during her former modeling career have come back to haunt a novice candidate's campaign for the state House.

The photos, posted on ModelMayhem.com, were removed at her request from that website Friday, Julia Hurley said Monday.

Hurley, 28, a Lenoir City resident, is seeking the Republican nomination for the 32nd House District in the Aug. 5 primary.

In one photo, Hurley has rope coiled around her upper torso while she tips a hat with one hand and holds the rope in the other.

Another photo, part of a series called "Out of Frame," has Hurley, dressed in what she calls a "full black body suit" similar to a leotard: and wearing knee-high black boots while stepping through a picture frame she's holding at an angle.

Those photos were taken about five years ago. Hurley called them "very artistic."

It was to be used, she wrote in an e-mail, "in artistic magazines as a way to express the use of props and makeup so as to accentuate more of a model's facial expression and use of material than focus on body or sexuality."

Said Hurley: "I think I did a very good job as a model."

She said she was paid $300 for that photo shoot, and she's been modeling since she was 5 years old.

Local media outlets were tipped off about Hurley's modeling career and her former job at a Hooters restaurant in an e-mail.

Hurley, a single mother with a 13-year-old daughter, confirmed she worked periodically for five years at the Hooters in Alcoa. She said she's a graduate of Maryville College.

The photos, Hurley said, are "not as risque as many, many, many could be.''

Hurley professed shock about the revelations.

"It has nothing to do with my ability to lead. It has nothing to do with my business or the Republican Party or all of the volunteer work I have done with conservatives across the state," she said.

Hurley, owner of a firm titled JaCy Company that markets online collegiate sports paraphernalia, faces Jason Bagnell in the Republican primary. Incumbent state Rep. Dennis Ferguson is unopposed in the Democratic primary.

The 32nd House District includes all of Roane County and the Lenoir City area of Loudon County.

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6/23/10