Cravins goes on offense in race

• By PATRICK COURREGES
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: Jul 2, 2008 - Page: 1BA - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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State Sen. Don Cravins Jr. has taken the first swing in this year’s campaign for Louisiana’s 7th District congressional seat, tagging incumbent U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany Jr. on the issue of legislative pay raises.

Cravins, D-Opelousas, who formally announced his entry into the race last week, wasted little time in going on the offensive.

Boustany, R-Lafayette, said Tuesday that he was not surprised by the early attack, saying it was a standard “Washington” tactic.

In a Monday news release lauding Gov. Bobby Jindal’s veto of the legislative pay raise passed recently, Cravins also released a statement blasting Boustany for having accepted congressional pay raises.

“It’s time to get it started,” Cravins said Tuesday. “That’s going to be one of the main issues in my campaign, is the pay raise issue.”

Cravins, who voted against the state legislator raise, included in his Monday statement that Boustany had taken $7,500 in pay raises in his time in office, while opposing an increase in the federal minimum wage.

A Congressional Research Service study on congressional pay raises shows pay increases from 2005 — Boustany’s first year in office — to the present to be $7,200, rising from $162,100 a year to $169,300 a year.

Those raises were tied to cost-of-living rules that go into effect automatically unless voted down or reduced.

Boustany said one of those measures was tied in with a much larger bill providing transportation funding.

He said that bill also included provisions for the extension of Interstate 49, funding for the Lafayette Regional Airport and $500,000 for the first phase of recreational park in Opelousas.

Boustany also said the Cravins campaign appeared to be taking some liberties in interpreting procedural votes tied to the pay raise actions.

Cravins said he would not have accepted a pay raise in his first term in an office, nor in the same term it was passed, and certainly not at a time when many people are struggling with problems such as the ever-increasing price of gasoline.

He said that while he knows business interests have concerns about the possible negative impacts of an increase in the minimum wage, even opponents of such an increase would question a member of Congress who votes against it while taking a pay increase.