A three-year-old sinkhole that forced 350 rural Louisiana residents from their homes has become a flashpoint in the governor’s race, with Republican candidate David Vitter accusing GOP rival Scott Angelle of running away from the catastrophe, The Associated Press reports.
Angelle was head of the Department of Natural Resources in August 2012 when a swampy area of Assumption Parish dissolved into muck about 40 miles south of Baton Rouge. He left the job only a few days after the sinkhole emerged, and Vitter’s campaign has accused him of abandoning the Bayou Corne residents.
“Louisiana needs a leader not a quitter,” Vitter campaign manager Kyle Ruckert said in one of several emails the campaign has circulated on the subject.
In response, Angelle’s campaign has called the attacks inaccurate—and said a law firm that works for Vitter and donated to his gubernatorial campaign effort represents the company blamed for the sinkhole, Texas Brine LLC. Angelle’s campaign says Vitter is working with Texas Brine “to shift the blame.”
Angelle left the job as natural resources secretary to run for the Public Service Commission, a state regulatory position he won and continues to hold. He said he left the department with “all the tools and resources it needed” to respond to the sinkhole.
“It’s disappointing that David has at this point begun to smear. And the facts that he has are not facts at all,” Angelle said.
Vitter and Angelle are two of four major contenders on the Oct. 24 ballot in the governor’s race, along with Republican Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne and Democratic state Rep. John Bel Edwards. Only Vitter has struck at Angelle over the sinkhole, which has grown to more than 30 acres since it first formed.
