This kind of stuff in Louisiana politics has now gotten really, really old. But unlike the David Vitter hooker stories, there were no dead bodies per se (the madam did kill herself, but that appeared to have been a reaction to the shame of having been outed in the media). With this?

Cleanup on Aisle Five.

A new book investigating the murders of eight Louisiana sex workers raises questions about a United States congressman’s alleged ties to a local prostitution hub.

In the book, Murder in the Bayou — which will be released by Simon & Schuster’s Scribner imprint next week — investigative journalist Ethan Brown cites three anonymous sources claiming Republican Rep. Charles Boustany was a “client” of some of the murdered sex workers known as the “Jeff Davis 8.” The book also reveals that the motel where some of the victims did their sex work was run by Martin Guillory, a field representative for Boustany who goes by the nickname “Big G.”

Boustany, who is now running for U.S. Senate in Louisiana, denied the allegations to the author through a spokesman. Guillory, who ran the Boudreaux Inn from the late 1990s through the end of 2004, told the author he’d met “one or two” of the sex workers, as well as Frankie Richard, their pimp. But Guillory said he was unaware of any criminal activity taking place at the motel.

Between 2005 and 2009, the bodies of eight women were discovered in the canals and swamps surrounding the small town of Jennings in Louisiana’s Jefferson Davis Parish. The victims, whose murders remain unsolved, became known in the national media as the “Jeff Davis 8.”

Brown, who has spent more than five years investigating the case, writes in Murder in the Bayou that Boustany’s name first came up in his reporting during a 2012 interview with Richard, the pimp who was briefly charged with one victim’s murder. (The charges were later dropped.)

Brown says he has three different sources who, anonymously, claim Boustany was a customer of one or more of the dead hookers. He says one of the sources was a hooker in her own right and another one was a friend of a couple of the victims.

And here’s the third source Brown cites…

I will call this witness Boustany Witness A. Taskforce investigators took Boustany Witness A seriously enough to interview her over several days in October of 2012. Boustany Witness A kept meticulous logs of her visits with the Taskforce, and according to these logs, she was interrogated by the upper echelon of the Taskforce … In an August 2015 meeting at the FBI’s Lake Charles office, I asked Agent Reed about his meeting with Boustany Witness A, and he refused to confirm or deny that such a meeting occurred. Agent Reed also refused to confirm or deny that the feds have received information that Boustany patronized any of the Jeff Davis 8.

This is somewhat thin gruel for such a damaging allegation against a Senate candidate, and Charles Boustany doesn’t exactly come off as a guy who’s anxious to destroy his political career by laying down with hookers.

Boustany’s people are furiously denying all this as you might imagine…

In a statement provided to the author, Boustany’s then-spokesman Jack Pandol said, “Dr. Boustany had no knowledge of Martin Guillory’s prior involvement at the establishment you mentioned. After double checking our office’s records, Dr. Boustany has never had any contact with any of the eight victims you mentioned. Obviously this case is a tragedy and Dr. Boustany is saddened something like this could happen in southwest Louisiana.”

Reached Wednesday by BuzzFeed News, Boustany spokesman Jordan Gleason said, “We stand by the statement provided to Mr. Brown. These are outrageous lies and Dr. Boustany has no knowledge of this whatsoever.”

Boustany’s discovery of Guillory’s connection to the Boudreaux Inn has apparently not put an end to their professional relationship. According to FEC documents, Guillory has received payment from Boustany’s current Senate campaign.

The Boudreaux Inn seems like it was a pretty notorious flophouse, and if there is anything serious in all this where Boustany is concerned you could perhaps say that having Guillory around is a political liability. Even so, his involvement with the place was some time ago.

In Murder in the Bayou, Brown details police reports showing that “Frankie Richard and several of the slain workers were constantly involved in incidents resulting in police presence at the Boudreaux Inn” during Guillory’s proprietorship. One of the sex workers was accused of stealing from an apparent John at the motel; another was stabbed in the head during an altercation there.

“Big G” Guillory himself shows up in a July 22, 2003, incident report in which the Sheriff’s Office was called to the motel because he had “pulled a black pistal [sic] on” the complainant during an argument. Guillory’s handgun was confiscated and placed in evidence, and he received a citation for aggravated assault.

It’s a bad political beat regardless of whether it’s true, because every other candidate in the race is going to play the “hookers” card on Boustany the rest of the way. After all, if old allegations about hookers could get John Bel Edwards elected over David Vitter, you’d have to figure new allegations about hookers would do a number on Boustany.

Does it change the Louisiana Senate race? Well, in the Hayride/Remington Research poll out last week Boustany was within striking distance of Foster Campbell for second place and a spot in the runoff, with 13 percent to Campbell’s 16 percent (John Kennedy is in a comfortable lead at 27 percent). A Boustany collapse could shake loose some voters that John Fleming (6 percent) might pull, and perhaps there are some South Louisiana Democrat voters currently for Boustany who could migrate to Caroline Fayard (12 percent) and give her a chance to close in on Campbell. As things stand now, though, if these allegations impact the race they likely only reinforce the odds of a Kennedy-Campbell runoff which was probable last month when the poll was taken.

But in any event, we now know it’s a statewide election cycle in Louisiana. There have been allegations made of extramarital sex by one of the candidates, and our never-ending string of sleaze is unbroken.