BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The televised war of words in the U.S. Senate race between Democrat Mary Landrieu and Republican John Kennedy has moved to accusations of corruption and mismanagement.
An ad by the National Republican Senatorial Committee seeks to capitalize on a recent report by a non-partisan watchdog group, Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, that labeled Landrieu one of the most corrupt members of Congress.
The group based its assertion on her efforts to secure a congressional earmark for a company that later contributed to Landrieu’s campaign.
“We have seen it all — gambling interests funneling money, favors for contributors, allegations of bribery. Until Landrieu is gone, ethics reform in Louisiana just isn’t done,” the narrator of the NRSC ad says.
Landrieu’s campaign fired back with an ad tying Kennedy to the state’s troubled insurer of last resort, the Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. Citizens struggled to pay claims after Hurricane Katrina and was criticized in a state audit for wasting money on golf outings and other trips.
“John Kennedy sits on the board of the company that wasted a million dollars on golfing and trips but didn’t have enough to pay hurricane clips,” the Landrieu ad says.
Both campaigns responded with detailed news releases seeking to rebut the claims. Kennedy called the ad “patently false” and said in a statement that it “intentionally misleads voters into thinking that I went on a junket somewhere.”
While Kennedy does sit on Citizens’ board, he was not a recipient of the items cited in the audit.
The Landrieu campaign called the GOP ad “false, negative” and issued a news release citing her senatorial votes in favor of tougher ethics laws and awards she has received from good-government groups.
 
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