If I were to guess, I'd guess that John (Johnny Doc) Dougherty is the front-runner in the Democratic primary for the Pennsylvania Senate seat abandoned by ethically challenged and indicted Vince Fumo. Oh woe is me. I cannot possibly vote Republican this Fall for that seat, as the Republican in the race, Jack Morley, is a complete and utter nutcase. (Hey, Jack, how did that brandishing of a weapon in a bar thing come out, anyway?) We're all hoping Anne Dicker can pull off an upset.
But this isn't about Anne Dicker, a fine organizer and community advocate. This is about the bully and thug, Johnny Doc. Yeah, I'll admit that the third candidate in this race, Larry Farnese, has it right. Johnny Doc is a bully and a thug. But it's his lack of ethics that should make us all rally against sending him to Harrisburg. Here's the latest on Johnny Doc from the Philadelphia Daily News:
A mysterious flier that surfaced in last year's mayoral race comparing Michael Nutter's stop-and-frisk proposal to an infamous police raid on the Black Panthers was created by a consultant for the city electricians union, the city Board of Ethics disclosed yesterday.
The consultant, Tommie St. Hill, said yesterday he had prepared the flier on his own, without financial support from the electricians or anyone else.But the Ethics Board, an independent agency responsible for enforcing the city's campaign finance laws, appears to be investigating the possibility that the electricians' political-action committee paid for the leaflet and filed misleading financial reports to conceal it.
The union is led by John J. Dougherty, now a candidate for the state Senate. During last year's mayoral race, Dougherty was a prominent backer of Tom Knox, the insurance tycoon who finished second to Nutter in the Democratic primary.
The Black Panther flier was one of two anonymous leaflets, both criticizing Nutter, to appear in the closing days of the campaign.
It shows six black males stripping off their clothes in front of two white police officers, with their guns drawn.
"Welcome to the Reality of Mike Nutter's 'Stop and Frisk' Philly," the flier says. "If he's elected mayor of Philadelphia, Mike Nutter will institute a controversial 'stop and frisk' program that will give police unlimited powers to stop and search any citizen, for any reason - or no reason - at all. A vote for Nutter is a vote for racial profiling. A vote for Nutter is a vote against our civil rights."
The leaflet itself contained no information on its origin. But the Ethics Board found the company that printed it and traced the leaflet to St. Hill, who now runs RCS Diversified Consultants, and was an aide to the late U.S. Rep. Lucien Blackwell .
In sworn testimony last summer, St. Hill told the Ethics Board he spent at least $8,800 of his own money to print 125,000 copies of the flier and pay 25 or 30 people to distribute it on Election Day, in North and West Philadelphia.
In a filing yesterday in Common Pleas Court, the Ethics Board identified $22,500 in payments from the electricians' political-action committee to St. Hill and RCS within two months of the flier's printing.
On the PAC's financial reports, the payments were described as "GOTV" - the term normally used to describe "get out the vote" activities on Election Day.
Also, the union paid $49,000 to RCS from the union's Job Recovery Account. And St. Hill received another $15,000 in October from Philadelphia Phuture, a PAC run by Dougherty's daughter, Erin.
There you have it. The guy who produced the ugly and unattributed campaign flier against Michael Nutter received tons of dollars from the Johnny Doc PAC, but he claims it had no influence on his actions. What a whiney excuse. Next St. Hill is going to be posing as a Republican and playing footsie in a men's room or something. I GUARANTEE Johnny Doc had his hands on that dirty trick in last year's mayoral campaign. I GUARANTEE. It may never come out in court, but only because Johnny Doc will stonewall the Ethics Board's attempts to figure it out. That's the big thing here. We do not need a man serving Philadelphia's interest in Harrisburg who holds such contempt for ethics that he will not answer inquiries from the Ethics Board. Simple as that. I also GUARANTEE, when it comes down to it, that Johnny Doc will claim he did not know anything about St. Hill's dirty trick fliers, but if anyone believes Johnny Doc didn't know, they are completely fooling themselves.
But isn't Johnny Doc incompetent, just like tons of Republicans out there? Yeah, I think he's a Republican in Democratic clothing. And here's a bit of his incompetence, guaged by who he's backed recently. From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
The former construction worker's rise to power broker has not been without setbacks.
One of his first candidates, Rick Mariano, a Local 98 member who was elected to City Council in 1995, was convicted of bribery in 2006 and is in prison.
After his ouster as party treasurer, Dougherty supported millionaire Tom Knox in the 2007 mayoral primary, which included Brady and which Michael Nutter won. He also backed Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum in his failed bid to win reelection against Bob Casey in 2006.
Yup, Johnny Doc has tried to be kingmaker in the past, and he's failed. First he backed indicted and convicted Rick Mariano. Then he endorsed Tom Knox, a man who was a good candidate, though not the right man for Philadelphia in this time. It was in service of Tom Knox that Johnny Doc ordered these ugly dirty trciks, no doubt. But Johnny Doc should be completely condemned for supporting Rick Santorum. First, Santorum is anathema to anything Democratic, with both a capital "D" and a small "d." Santorum lost so badly in 2006 because he is completely out of touch not just with the average Pennsylvanian, but also with the average Pennsylvania Republican. Maybe it was Santorum's own ethical lapses that attracted Johnny Doc to him.
I'm not sure how good endorsements are in this city anymore, but it is good to see the Daily News has backed Anne Dicker. I know Anne well, and will be at my polling place working for her on election day. She's a fine person, and there's not a soul out there who could accuse Anne Dicker of ethical lapses. Yeah, Johnny Doc is likely to be indicted in the next few months, if the scuttlebut is right. But we need a clean candidate for change in Philly, and that candidate is Anne Dicker.
Please, folks, even if you are from far from Philly, consider a gift to Anne Dicker's campaign.
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