BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — 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.
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.
Texas Brine was drilling on the edge of an underground salt deposit to create a cavern to extract brine used in petrochemical refining. Scientists say the cavern was being mined too close to the edge of the salt dome. Texas Brine has accused another company of negligent drilling that it said contributed to the damage. Lawsuits over the issue remain in court.
Vitter supporters see the dislocation of the families who live in the Bayou Corne area — which received significant media attention in the region — as a vulnerability for Angelle.
A pro-Vitter super PAC is airing a TV ad accusing Angelle of neglecting to provide information that could have helped prevent the sinkhole or warned families. Vitter's campaign has echoed similar criticism, releasing a list of news stories several months in advance of the sinkhole collapse that described gas bubbles, leaking gas and tremors in the area.
"Was Scott Angelle oblivious to this, or did he just not care?" the Vitter campaign said.
Angelle points to a state law that divides up the duties of the natural resources department and that he says grants the Office of Conservation within the department sole authority over the sort of salt dome mining thought to have caused the sinkhole.
His campaign also circulated a letter from Martin Triche, president of the Assumption Parish Police Jury, touting Angelle's efforts when the sinkhole occurred. Triche said Vitter's campaign attack was an insulting "attempt to politicize this disaster."
"To suggest that Scott Angelle abandoned Bayou Corne and Assumption Parish is nothing short of completely false," Triche wrote. "Sen. Vitter was not there for our residents when Scott was."