The 2011 Louisiana Lieutenant Governor campaign is officially off and running. We’ve got our first full-on attack ad.

The Dardenne campaign is launching this haymaker – which was actually uploaded to YouTube on Friday – in ripping Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser for having made campaign donations to lefty politicians like Barbara Boxer, Charlie Melancon, Mitch Landrieu and Mary Landrieu…

Is the criticism valid? Well, courtesy of OpenSecrets.org this is Nungesser’s federal election donation record…

NUNGESSER, BILLY BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	OCEAN CHEF CATERING	11/11/04	$1,000	Tauzin, Billy III (R)
NUNGESSER, BILLY NEW ORLEANS,LA 70131	GENERAL MARINE CATERING	7/23/90	$1,000	Bagert, Ben (R)

NUNGESSER, WILLIAM BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	PLAQUEMNIES PARISH/PRESIDENT	2/23/11	$2,400	McCarthy, Kevin (R)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	PLAQUEMINE PARISH/PRESIDENT	9/29/07	$2,300	Alexander, Rodney (R)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	PLAQUEMINES PARISH/ELECTED OFFICIAL	12/27/07	$2,300	Scalise, Steve (R)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	PLAQUEMINES PARISH GOVT/PARISH PRES	2/21/08	$2,300	Vitter, David (R)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	RETIRED/RETIRED	2/1/06	$2,100	Jindal, Bobby (R)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	RETIRED/RETIRED	2/1/06	$2,100	Jindal, Bobby (R)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	PLAQUEMINES PARISH GOVERNMENT/PARIS	3/28/08	$1,000	Wicker, Roger (R)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	PLAQUEMINES PARISH/PRESIDENT	2/19/08	$1,000	Kopplin, Andrew David (D)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037		3/31/99	$1,000	Treen, David C (R)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM NEW ORLEANS,LA 70174	GENERAL MARINE LEASING	3/29/98	$1,000	McKeithen, Majorie A (D)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	RETIRED	3/31/99	$1,000	Treen, David C (R)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	GENERAL MARINE	8/20/96	$500	Linder, William H (R)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	PLAQUEMINES PARISH GOVT/PARISH PRES	2/21/08	$200	Vitter, David (R)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM H BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	PLAQUEMINES PARISH/PRESIDENT	9/5/08	$1,700	Landrieu, Mary L (D)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM H BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	PLAQUEMINES PARISH/PRESIDENT	9/5/08	$1,300	Landrieu, Mary L (D)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM H BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	GENERAL MARINE LEASING	10/25/02	$1,000	Landrieu, Mary L (D)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM H BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	RETIRED	5/24/99	$1,000	Treen, David C (R)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM H BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	GENERAL MARINE LEASING/PRESIDENT	4/10/08	$1,000	Melancon, Charles (D)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM H BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	GENERAL MARINE LEASING/PRESIDENT	8/4/05	$1,000	Melancon, Charles (D)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM H BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	GENERAL MARINE LEASING/PRESIDENT	3/22/06	$1,000	Melancon, Charles (D)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM H BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	GENERAL MARINE LEASING/PRESIDENT	8/26/07	$1,000	Landrieu, Mary L (D)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM H BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	GENERAL MARINE LEASING/PRESIDENT	8/4/06	$900	Melancon, Charles (D)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM H NEW ORLEANS,LA 70174	GENERAL MARINE LEASING	9/18/96	$500	Slatten, Jim (R)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM H MR BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	EMPLOYEE	9/8/06	$1,000	Romero, Craig F (R)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM H MR BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037	PLAQUEMINES PARISH/PARISH PRESIDENT	2/11/11	$500	Cao, Joseph (R)
NUNGESSER, WILLIAM HAROLD PORT SULPHUR,LA 70083	PLAQUEMINE’S PARISH/PRESIDENT	2/21/11	$2,400	Landry, Jeffrey M (R)
NUNGESSER, WM MR NEW ORLEANS,LA 70130	REP PARTY OF LA	9/4/90	$500	Holloway, Clyde Cecil (R)

Obviously, there are a lot more Republicans getting donations than Democrats. The donation to Boxer doesn’t show up in that search, though obviously the Dardenne camp found it somewhere.

Dardenne’s OpenSecrets.org search turns up a lot less money going out and a perhaps “cleaner” record seeing as though he’s never given money to Democrats…

DARDENNE, JAY BATON ROUGE,LA 70808	STATE OF LOUISIANA	10/18/00	$250	Republican Party of Louisiana (R)
DARDENNE, JOHN BATON ROUGE,LA 70809	SELF EMPLOYED/ATTORNEY	9/7/04	$500	Republican Party of Louisiana (R)
DARDENNE, JOHN L BATON ROUGE,LA 70809	KENNON ODOM & DARDENNE/ATTORNEY	2/20/02	$250	Barham, Robert J (R)
DARDENNE, JOHN L BATON ROUGE,LA 70809	KENNON ODOM & DARDENNE/ATTORNEY	8/26/02	$250	Barham, Robert J (R)
DARDENNE, JOHN L HON BATON ROUGE,LA 70809		6/1/05	$250	Romero, Craig F (R)
DARDENNE, JOHN L JR BATON ROUGE,LA 70809	STATE OF LOUISIANA	6/21/96	$250	McMains, F Charles Jr (R)

If you’re Dardenne you can look at these two donor records and ask why anybody is giving him a hard time about not being sufficiently conservative in comparison to Nungesser. Checks to Mitch and Mary and Charlie-Boy look a heck of a lot more RINO-esque than a few squishy votes in the state Senate when Mike Foster was the governor, so this is obviously an effort to seize the high ground on the Right. And in that respect the ad is a decent example of taking what’s available and using it.

But perhaps a valid retort could be made that Nungesser’s federal political donations, while perhaps a barometer of where one falls on the ideological spectrum, aren’t exactly relevant to the Lt. Governor’s race. And that question is one of the more interesting ones as the campaign takes shape.

After all, Nungesser hasn’t exactly restricted himself to the stated duties of the office he’s running for – as evidenced by the fact that of the five-point plan he put forth as a basis for his campaign the first four included…

• Ensuring that the BP money is used to restore those affected by the oil spill.
• Making sure the federal government expedites the permitting process and the EPA allows for a five year permit so the oil and gas industry – the backbone of Louisiana’s economy – is never shut down again and we can act responsibly to restore our coasts.
• Protecting taxpayers so we can streamline government and reduce its costs to allow for true reform within our tax system.
• Working to recruit new business and industry to Louisiana to create jobs and put people back to work.

That’s a pretty broad agenda, and it frames the campaign as being one for Bobby Jindal’s successor as governor rather than a rather unsung second-chair position in charge of culture and tourism as Dardenne has made a point of defining the office.

The ad seems like it attacks Nungesser on those broad lines he’s laid out. And in that respect it’s a good one. But does this mean Dardenne is going to engage Billy on that turf throughout the campaign?

If so, it’s an interesting development. Nungesser isn’t exactly the guy from Central Casting as the state’s ambassador; he’s the fat yat who dog-cusses the Coast Guard on TV. But Billy makes things happen and he’s a leader with charisma. Folks will vote for him if they have a reason to do it. So by opening things up to all kinds of issues that don’t specifically matter in the Lt. Governor’s race, like whether Billy gave money to Barbara Boxer, Dardenne is risking letting Nungesser out of the “bad fit for the Lt. Gov. job” box he might be able to keep him in.

Will Billy have a response to this one? Will the campaign evolve as a question of who’s a better governor-in-waiting rather than who can run culture and tourism?

Stay tuned. It’s just getting started.

UPDATE: A second search on Open Secrets finds this…

NUNGESSER, WILLIAM
BELLE CHASSE,LA 70037PLAQUEMINES PARISH GOVERNMENT/PLAQU6/13/2009$2,400Boxer, Barbara

So he gave a max donation to Boxer when Chuck DeVore, Tom Campbell and Carly Fiorina were all at least contemplating running against her. Wow.