GOP House hopeful criticizes Boehner

Indiana congressional hopeful Luke Puckett (R) told a local radio station on Thursday that Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) violated protocol by traveling to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) without an outside conduit to help navigate local customs.

Puckett said, “If you have not caught what is taking place when John Boehner announced his trip with the freshman CODEL going to ANWR, they are violating so many protocols right now in order to come.”

{mosads}He added, “They haven't talked to the correct people. Therefore there's a lot of confusion up here right now as to who they are even dealing with or what they are even doing.”

Boehner spokesman Kevin Smith said, “We’ve worked very closely with federal, state, local, and tribal officials on this trip, and that includes the Interior Department, both in Washington D.C. and Alaska, as well as the governor, Sarah Palin. It is no different than hundreds of the other trips every administration facilitates with members of Congress.”

Last week the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee blasted Puckett, who is running against Democrat Joe Donnelly (Ind.), and four other Republican candidates who traveled to the ANWR region for allowing Arctic Power, a pro drilling non-profit group, to allegedly fund the trip. Puckett has vehemently denied the charge.

Puckett reiterated several times during the telephone interview that Arctic Power merely facilitated the trip and that he and the other candidates self-funded the ANWR tour.

Arctic Power has spent between $100,000 and $600,000 lobbying Congress each year since 2001.

Boehner led the delegation of freshman Republicans to Denver and Alaska this weekend to promote the use of U.S. resources and new technology amid the U.S. energy crisis. The trip was funded through the executive branch, according to Boehner’s staff.

Puckett's campaign manager Kyle Bailey said, “If the comments were taken as critical that’s unfortunate.”

Bailey also said, "There's a lot more that goes into doing an ANWR tour than booking plane tickets and doing a press conference."

Republicans who are on the trip with Boehner and Puckett are Craig Williams, who will run against Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.); Chris Lien, who is challenging Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D) in South Dakota; Paul Stark, who faces Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.); and Mike Sodrel, who is running against Rep. Baron Hill (D-Ind.).

This is not the first time that a GOP House hopeful has been publicly critical of Boehner during the 2008 cycle. Jim Ogonowski (R) called on Boehner to apologize last fall after making controversial comments on U.S. troops in Iraq. Ogonowski subsequently lost his special election to now Rep. Nicki Tsongas (D-Mass.).