Philly’s Political Odd Couple

WITHOUT DOC’S SUPPORT, Green probably wouldn’t be on City Council, much less eyeballing the mayor’s office. In 2007, Local 98 kicked in at least $18,500 to Green’s campaign. Philadelphia Phuture, a Dougherty-aligned political action committee, chipped in another $10,000. That’s not unusual. Dougherty’s clout has always come from his ability to raise and distribute hefty amounts for his chosen candidates—$25,000 for Ed Rendell here, $20,000 for John Perzel there. In the past decade alone, Local 98 has spent nearly $20 million on everything from presidential candidates to local judges.

But that wasn’t where Green really needed help. His father had plenty of chits to call in. Instead, Green needed to broaden his base beyond those who fondly remembered his father’s mayoralty more than two decades earlier.

“Nobody was for Bill,” says Mayor Green. “He was opposed by the party.” The newspapers didn’t endorse him, either. Nor did he have the kind of charisma that could cut through the clutter of a crowded field. But John Dougherty was there.

The younger Green’s constituency, such as it was, was in the Northwest and Center City; Doc’s guys hit the streets of South Philly hard. Doc brought into Green’s orbit ward and union leaders who otherwise might have passed on him. In the run-up to Election Day, Local 98 launched a massive get-out-the-vote effort.

“He’s very effective,” Mayor Green says of Dougherty. “When John puts his nose to the grindstone, the stone wears down.”

In 2011, though Green’s reelection was never really in doubt, IBEW and Doc’s crew funneled at least $40,000 into Green’s coffers—around $25,000 of it through Local 98-affil-iated- political action committees that exploited a loophole in the city’s campaign-finance limits, even as Green held up legislation that would have closed that loophole. And when Green runs for mayor in four years, it’ll likely be Doc’s guys pounding the pavement for him.

The question isn’t whether Doc “owns” Green. Green’s much too proud to be anyone’s puppet, and there’s little evidence that he’s carried Local 98’s water. But can Bill Green really lay claim to the mantle of good-government champion with John Dougherty at his side? And if so, what does that say about our city?

BEFORE THAT FIRST CAMPAIGN, Green and Dougherty had never met. While Doc was building his empire, Green was living elsewhere—London, Amsterdam, New York, Atlanta—and working as an options and futures trader, then as a lawyer. He didn’t move back home until 2004, and he didn’t plunge into the political world until January 2007, four months before Election Day.

“I basically called and introduced myself to every person I considered to be a power broker in the city, and most of them had very little time for me,” Green says.
Dougherty, however, gave Green a chance. There was history there. Doc’s grandfather was a state rep from South Philly. Councilman Green’s grandfather, Bill Green II, was the head of the city’s Democratic Party. They’d been close, too. That Dougherty had been Boss Green’s man in Harrisburg, a leader of the local delegation.