Knox County Commissioner Richard Briggs, an announced opponent in next year’s Republican primary against State Senator Stacey Campfield, called Knoxville Focus publisher Steve Hunley saying he was “furious” about having been “misquoted” in an article appearing in the Knoxville News-Sentinel. Listen to Commissioner Briggs’s voice mail message here.

Senator Campfield complained citizens were being harassed by repeated telephone calls made by an automated system.  Campfield took his complaint to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Briggs, leaving a voice mail on Hunley’s telephone, explained the Sentinel reporter had tried to insinuate Mr. Hunley was somehow involved in running his Senate campaign.  Briggs emphatically stated that was not true and went on to say he “knew for a fact” neither Hunley nor the Focus had anything to do with the survey gone awry.

Commissioner Briggs went on to tell Hunley in the voicemail that he intended to call Sentinel publisher Patrick Birmingham to address having been so severely misquoted, as the Sentinel had implied Briggs suggested the failed poll might have been conducted by the Knoxville Focus.

Listen to Commissioner Briggs’s voice mail message here.