BATON ROUGE - After emails belonging to state workers were shown to be used for accounts on adultery website Ashley Madison, the state said Thursday, it is against policy for employees to use state-owned email addresses for this type of activity.

Ashley Madison is an online dating site that connects people who are trying to have an affair. The website's databases were targeted by hackers earlier this year. Account information for millions of account users was released this week. 

The state said using email addresses connected to Louisiana government could qualify as an inappropriate use of resources.

Among the thousands of people in the Baton Rouge area whose names and email addresses are listed as having been used on the website are addresses belonging to the director of the Louisiana Republican Party, Jason Doré and East Baton Rouge Metro Councilman Ryan Heck.

Doré said Thursday the ccount released as part of the hack was used for "opposition research."  Doré said it was created under his name using his former personal credit card billing address as part of his work at his law firm. Doré did not go into detail about who he was using the account for. 

"As the state's leading opposition research firm, our law office routinely searches public records, online databases and websites of all types to provide clients with comprehensive reports," Doré said. "Our utilization of this site was for standard opposition research. Unfortunately, it ended up being a waste of money and time."

The leaked database showed Doré signed up for the account in 2013.

Heck, also a Republican, confirmed on Facebook that he signed up for an Ashley Madison account five years ago. Heck wrote on Facebook: