According to all recently released polls so far, Congressman Charles Boustany is either in the runoff or running close to 2nd. The only two candidates polling near him so far are the frontrunner, state Treasurer John Kennedy, and Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell.

Boustany is trying to exploit a strength of his, the oil and gas industry. The industry has largely rallied to Charles Boustany and he’s using energy as a wedge issue.

His latest attempt was when he spoke to a meeting of energy industry leaders in Lafayette. First, he laid out his accomplishments, as he sees them according to his press release.

Boustany said he is the only candidate in the race with a strong record supporting the oil & gas industry. Boustany highlighted his achievements, which include: stopping the President’s proposed $10.25 tax on every barrel of oil, blocking the attempt to eliminate intangible drilling cost expensing, preventing funding for BSEE’s well control rule, and leading the effort to lift the ban on crude oil exports.

Then he turned his attention to both John Kennedy and Foster Campbell, blasting both as anti-energy. Interestingly, the Boustany campaign used an article from Lamar White to attack Kennedy as supporting a tax on fracking. The hit on Foster Campbell was much easier, using his own frequent statements calling for higher taxes on “Big Oil.”

The Kennedy campaign responded to Boustany’s charges when asked by The Daily Advertiser:

Kennedy, in turn, said he’d never proposed such a tax and suggested Boustany was “smoking some of that medicinal marijuana they passed in the Legislature.”

“I support fracking unconditionally,” Kennedy said, “even on federal land.

“I’ve never supported a tax on oil and gas,” Kennedy said. “We need to be cutting taxes on oil and gas.”

The Boustany campaign then released a press release accusing Kennedy of running from his record on taxes.

Does Kennedy support higher taxes on fracking? Probably not. Outside of Lamar White’s article, we couldn’t find anything else to backup Boustany’s assertion. Instead, what probably happened is Kennedy sent out a report without reading it.

Now that could be a line of attack in itself.