Candidate's message jams emergency line

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla., Aug. 23 (UPI) -- An automated message by a Flagler County, Fla. candidate for state senate jammed an emergency operations center phone line, a county official said.

The St. Augustine Record reported Dan Quiggle recorded a message telling people to place calls to the county in protest of a proposed tax hike. The automated calls resulted in around 100 calls to the emergency number, the report said.

Quiggle's message provided an incorrect phone number which turned out to be the emergency number, said county administrator Craig Coffey.

Quiggle, a Republican from Ponte Vedra Beach, is also the Florida chairman of Americans for Prosperity.

Quiggle recorded the message on behalf of the group, but it was not a campaign tactic, said Ann-Marie Matthews, Quiggle's campaign coordinator.

Quiggle did not mention his campaign in the message, said Adam Guillette, the Florida director of Americans for Prosperity. Guillette accused the county of diverting focus from the tax issue, the newspaper reported.

Guillette said Americans for Prosperity double-checked the county's phone number before sending the message, but county spokesman Carl Laundrie said, "They didn't verify it with the Flagler County government or look in the phone book, that's for sure."