Philly’s Political Odd Couple

In the Dougherty household, the Green name was respected—revered, even. So when Councilman Green came calling that winter, Doc was receptive.

In Green’s recollection, Doc was less interested in his ideology than in “who I was, whether or not I was a real person or just some kid whose daddy was mayor.”

By March, Dougherty was on board.

“I don’t think John had any idea what he was getting from him,” says a mutual friend. Their relationship was more personal than political, rooted in family history rather than in Machiavellian scheming. Dougherty, says that friend, “had no intention of wanting to control [Green] in any way.”

JOHN DOUGHERTY THINKS I’m out to get him. After a long back-and-forth with the Dougherty camp as I tried to set up an interview, he said no. Dougherty didn’t like the questions I’d been asking Green and his father.

I suspect I know what riled him. I’d asked Mayor Green if in 2007 either he or anyone in his son’s Council campaign had worried that Doc might have been a liability. After all, following years of media drumbeating and federal prosecutors’ scrutiny, a month after the primary a close friend of Doc’s was charged with stealing $869,000 from a union benefits plan and making about $115,000 in illegal payments to Dougherty in the form of electrical work on Doc’s home.

Mayor Green didn’t like the question, either. “Are we living in McCarthy’s America?” he snapped. “I find that question almost McCarthy-like.”

He had a point. For all the smoke that has surrounded Dougherty over the years, there’s never been fire. At least, he’s never been arrested or indicted, and neither the newspaper reports of the feds hitting him with subpoenas nor the insinuations that charges might be around the corner change his presumption of innocence.

Still, there were plenty of reasons for a nascent politician to be wary of the union boss: the allegations of racism within Local 98, members’ obnoxious behavior during political campaigns, Dougherty ally Councilman Rick Mariano’s bribery convictions, the two-day union walkout at the Pennsylvania Convention Center that critics said hurt business there, the pissing match with Bob Brady that led to Doc losing his gig as Democratic Party treasurer and Brady investigating whether Doc was cooking the books. (They’ve since reconciled.)

If you talk to Dougherty’s enemies, you’ll hear (off the record) words like “monster,” “thug,” “bully” and “dangerous man.” As Sam Katz, who declined to comment for this story, once told the Inquirer: “John would rather win an argument with a fist than with an idea, and he doesn’t have any ideas.” So you can’t help but wonder whether Green worries that his brand as a reformer might be sullied by associating with Doc.

“Not at all,” Green replies. “I gotta tell ya, it didn’t even cross my mind. Everybody else talks about it, but I still don’t. Frankly, at this point it’s fair to say that John is the most vetted man in the City of Philadelphia.”