Yet another sex scandal in Louisiana politics is gaining national attention.
A new piece in The Washington Post explores the allegations in the U.S. Senate race involving Rep. Charles Boustany and a new book detailing the unsolved murders of eight prostitutes in the southwest Louisiana town of Jennings.
The newspaper details how candidates in the race are capitalizing on an email Rep. Charles Boustany’s wife, Bridget, sent to supporters defending the congressman against allegations published in author Ethan Brown’s Murder in the Bayou. Citing multiple anonymous sources, the book claims that Boustany—a top Republican contender for the Senate—had been the client of three deceased prostitutes. The women were part of an infamous string of unsolved deaths known as the “Jeff Davis 8” that happened in Jefferson Davis Parish from 2005 to 2009. Boustany has vehemently denied the allegations.
Most media outlets had treated the anonymous claims with caution, the Post notes, until Bridget Boustany sent the email, blasting the “media rumor mill and lies” about her husband that she called “false attacks aimed at bringing down a candidate who threatens to take the lead and win the race for U.S. Senate.”
Citing statements in recent weeks issued by fellow Republican candidates John Kennedy and John Fleming, the newspaper writes that the email “opened a door for his opponents to address the issue—and they burst through it.”
The story also highlights a string of sex scandals tarnishing Louisiana’s political past. “A new sex scandal in Louisiana, of course, isn’t exactly a shock,” the Post writes. “In the late 1950s, Gov. Earl Long openly consorted with a stripper, and Edwin Edwards cracked jokes about his affairs during his four terms as governor. More recently, in 2014, the married Rep. Vance McAllister was caught on leaked surveillance video kissing a married female aide, and he promptly lost his reelection.”
