Dems allege two groups working together

WASHINGTON, April 16 (UPI) -- U.S. House Democrats are charging the GOP congressional committee and a conservative organization are illegally coordinating campaign activities.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said it would file a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission outlining allegations against the National Republican Congressional Committee and Freedom Watch, The Politico reported Wednesday.

In a draft of its complaint, the Democratic committee cited a script Freedom's Watch submitted to Louisiana television stations for an ad attacking a Democratic House candidate. The complaint claims the document's embedded information contained "NRCC" in the title field and showed the document was modified last by "cforti," a possible reference to Carl Forti, a former NRCC official named an executive vice president at Freedom's Watch.

"It is impossible to know from the available facts the exact nature of the relationship between the NRCC and the Freedom's Watch script," the complaint read. "(The) metadata tend to show that the NRCC was involved in some way ... ."

The explanation is simple, Forti and Freedom's Watch responded. Patrick McCarthy, a partner with DMM

Media who developed the script, used an old NRCC template for producing it.

McCarthy and Forti said the GOP organization and Freedom's Watch did not coordinate efforts.