APNewsBreak: GOP promises Louisiana's Cassidy an energy panel seat, boosting Senate campaign

Republican Senate candidate Bill Cassidy has been promised a seat on the Senate's energy committee if he defeats Democratic incumbent Mary Landrieu (LAN'-droo).

The maneuver by incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell undercuts one of Landrieu's chief campaign arguments — that voters need to re-elect her to keep her seniority on the committee that oversees the nation's oil and gas industry.

While she will no longer serve as the committee's chair in the GOP-led Senate in the next Congress, Landrieu has campaigned hard on her place as the committee's senior Democrat — and Cassidy's inability to get a seat on the panel as a freshman senator.

But McConnell tells The Associated Press that he'll appoint Cassidy to the committee if he wins the Dec. 6 runoff.