Topeka ? Republican congressional candidate Lynn Jenkins blasted U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Topeka, for voting for an energy bill. But Jenkins refused to say whether she would have voted for the bill or against it.

Jenkins and Boyda face off Nov. 4 in the 2nd congressional district race that includes west Lawrence.

“I cannot tell you specifically the bill she would or would not have voted for since Lynn’s not in Congress, but what I sent you before is the criteria she would follow,” said Josh Hersh in an e-mail to the Lawrence Journal-World.

Earlier, Hersh said in an e-mail “Lynn would have voted for a compromise, bipartisan bill that was crafted by Republicans and Democrats. She would not have supported a political gimmick that’s been declared dead on arrival by a Democrat senator.”

But Boyda defended her vote for what she called a compromise bill that passed Tuesday in the House.

For example, she said, Republicans wanted to allow off-shore drilling within 25 miles of the nation’s coasts. Democrats originally wanted to limit drilling to 100 miles or beyond but then compromised to allow it within 50 miles, she said.

“Compromise is how our country has worked,” Boyda said. “The other side of aisle said ‘my way or the highway,'” she said.

The House approved the bill 236-189 with 221 Democrats and 15 Republicans voting for it, and 13 Democrats and 176 Republicans voting against it. Boyda and U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Lenexa, voted for the measure, while U.S. Reps. Jerry Moran, R-Hays, and Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, voted against it.