The House Democratic campaign arm today filed a second complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against the conservative activist group Freedom's Watch, this time alleging that the conservative group crossed the line in attacking a Democratic Louisiana House candidate.
Last week the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee filed a complaint alleging that the conservative advocacy group was illegally colluding with the Republican campaign arm on the same race.
Yesterday's complaint alleges that Freedom's Watch crossed federal guidelines governing how far a nonprofit advocacy group can go when inserting themselves into a political race. The advertisement in question attacked the tax record of Louisiana House candidate Don Cazayoux.
"In this instance they went to far," said DCCC spokesman Doug Thornell. "[T]hey went too far by highlighting essentially a vote he took and basically taking a clear position on his qualifications for public office."
The FEC lacks enough members for a voting quorum and is unlikely to act on this complaint any time soon. Meanwhile, Ed Patru, a spokesman for Freedom's Watch, dismissed the second complaint and said the ads would continue to run.
"The DCCC appears to have used last week's absurd complaint as a template for this latest complaint," Patru said. "It is recycled nonsense designed to distract from Don Cazayoux's record of tax hikes and his support of Barack Obama's expensive government run health care scheme."
The DCCC last night issued an online video attacking the similarity between the ad from Freedom's Watch and another from the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee.
— Carrie Sheffield, Web editor, The Washington Times
Comments (2)
The House Democratic Campaign Arm really has some gall (and I can use a much stronger noun). I don't hear them complaining about MoveOn.org or Media Matters or the Daily Kos or the Huffington Post and all the filth they put out in support of Democratic candidates. What a bunch of hypocrites. They're whining about as much as Obama is these days. The Democrats deserve to lose if they keep letting little children run their campaigns for them.
Posted by Libertyship46 | April 24, 2008 5:23 PM
Not to mention Obama and other Senate Democrats have refused to confirm Republicans to the FEC, making it ineffective for this campaign cycle. It's like the Clinton's not submitting their fundraising paperwork until after the election (1996).
Posted by Dan | April 25, 2008 1:20 PM