NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's secretary of state, comptroller and treasurer are abandoning an effort to use one communications officer to speak on all three constitutional officers' behalf.

Treasurer David Lillard announced Friday he has hired Shelli King, a former marketing consultant at WTVF-TV in Nashville, to be his chief spokeswoman. Comptroller Justin Wilson previously hired former WZTV-TV reporter John Dunn to be his spokesman.

They assume their duties from Blake Fontenay, a former reporter for The Commercial Appeal newspaper of Memphis, who will continue to be a spokesman for Secretary of State Tre Hargett through the end of the year.

The three Republican constitutional officers were first named to their positions by a joint convention of the state Legislature in 2009.