Loscocco says Cahill campaign conspired with Democrats

Loscocco's statement, coming a day after Cahill filed a politically charged lawsuit against his former operatives, only fueled a fight that all sides call a distraction from the real issues in the campaign. With less than a month until Election Day, the furious charges and countercharges — which continued flying today — promise to muddy the contest through the final stretch.

Cahill called made the rounds on talk radio to talk about the lawsuit he filed Thursday alleging that his aides committed political treason by ditching his campaign to help Baker. He called on Baker to fire any staffers who allegedly sought information from Cahill's former operatives — even though there is no evidence they received any.

"I’m tired of playing defense with these guys,” Cahill said on WRKO-AM. “We’ve got to play offense."

He told reporters later that Republicans were trying to "destroy me and destroy my candidacy and not give people a choice on Nov. 2.”

Baker, even as he called Cahill's lawsuit a "major distraction," sought to highlight aspects of it that he said raised questions about whether Cahill, the state treasurer, was using his state-funded employees to help his gubernatorial campaign. Baker and Cahill are battling each other for anti-Patrick voters.

Attorney General Martha Coakley, confronted by reporters, said she would look into the allegations against Cahill. "Certainly, if there is a violation of the law, whether it’s an ethics violation, a campaign finance violation, we’ll take a good review of it, and we’ll take the action that’s necessary," she told WHDH-TV. Hours later, the state Republican Party asked the state Ethics Commission to look into the same issue.

Baker, after kissing and hugging senior citizens at the Milano Senior Center in Melrose, acknowledged that his staff had pursued rumors about improper cooperation between Cahill's state and campaign staff.

“We’ve heard from a number of people about that, and we’ve said the same thing to every single one of them, which was: ‘If you don’t have any evidence and you don’t have any data, don’t bother,’” Baker said.

Cahill denied coordination between his campaign and government offices.

“I don’t believe they have something," Cahill said on WRKO. “If they had something, they would have already thrown it out there.”

Baker today also denied Cahill's central argument that Baker's staff was seeking strategic campaign information from Cahill's former aides.

"We did not seek, nor do we have, nor did we receive, nor do we want, any proprietary information from the Cahill campaign at any time,” Baker told reporters.

Early in the day, Patrick sought to steer clear of the controversy over Cahill's lawsuit, calling it a "distraction."

"I've read about it. I haven't read the complaint," the governor said. "I'm going to focus on what we're trying to do and the people we're trying to serve," he said.

Asked whether the dispute between Baker and Cahill would boost his campaign, Patrick said, "I don't have any comment on that."

Later, after Loscocco's statement implicated Rubin, Patrick declined to comment at length, but called the charge about his top strategist "false."

Rubin himself pushed back strongly at the accusation about him cooperating with Cahill's team.

"When Paul Loscocco stood by Charles Baker last week, he once again proved that his word cannot be trusted," Rubin said in a statement. "His most recent explanation of his actions is a desperate attempt to divert attention from his latest backroom deal, and is in fact directly contradicted by numerous emails made public recently."

Loscocco, vilified as a turncoat for switching allegiances less than a month before the election, sought vindication today in a statement titled, "Loscocco Sets the Record Straight." In it, he described the "personally difficult decision" he made to leave Cahill's side, which he also attributed to his being kept out of the campaign's inner circle for much of the year.

Loscocco's political director, Matthew P. Carleo, could not explain why Loscocco did not reveal the information when he endorsed Baker a week ago Friday. Loscocco previously said he was leaving the ticket because he was convinced that Cahill could not win and that his presence in the race would only help to reelect Patrick. Loscocco had initially angled to become Baker's running mate before he was rebuffed and then picked up by Cahill.

The Republican complaint to the Ethics Commission requests an investigation into whether Cahill's campaign "illegally coordinated with state employees" and used taxpayer resources for the benefit of his campaign. The complaint points to a recent ad buy for the state Lottery, which Cahill oversees as state treasurer. The ads highlight the money the Lottery generates for cities and towns.

"Coordination between political campaigns and state officials and utilizing state resources to benefit a political campaign is illegal," Nathan Little, executive director of the state GOP, said in the letter.

Andrew Ryan, Frank Phillips, and Eric Moskowitz of the Globe staff contributed to this report.