Today, my favorite local politico, John Dougherty, filed suit against the City, the Board of Ethics, the Attorney General and others, attempting to overturn a piece of Pennsylvania's very limited campaign finance laws. (See the complaint he filed here.)

John Dougherty, suing to overturn campaign finance laws? Hey, at least this time he is not just suing Philly! This time, he is going after the State, too. Specifically, he is suing in Federal Court, asserting that it is unconstitutional to force his IBEW Committee, COPE, to disclose how it spends its cash to influence elections.

Basically, Doc only wants to have to disclose when COPE specifically advocates for him a candidate who is running for office. Why? Because, when he has a pile of cash in his committee, he would like to keep it nice and secret, so long as he does not specifically mention his a candidate's name.

Gosh, it sure is amazing how John Dougherty becomes such a stanch defender of the first amendment every time he is running for office.

We will have much more on the specifics of this case, soon. But, here are a quick couple of thoughts:

1)I suppose Doc wanted to make sure that in his battle with the indicted Vince Fumo, progressives don't cast any votes for him. Mission accomplished.

2)Dougherty, the 'progressive' who backed Rick Santorum, joins other stalwarts such as Wisconsin Right-to-Life, and ultra-right wing Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell in trying to get Federal Courts to remove limits on how money is spent in our elections. I don't know if the suit will be successful- I doubt it- but there is no question that under the new Supreme Court, campaign finance laws are in danger from a concerted right-wing effort, as was shown in in the recent Wisconsin case. Congrats, Doc, on joining the movement. Next you can tell us why we need a flat tax, to privatize social security, and to invade Iran.

3)What, exactly, does Doc have to hide? I mean, it would seem that a guy running for Senate who also controls a political committee with tons of cash would probably want to allay fears that he is doing anything underhanded. But, hey, when you want things secret, you want them secret.

More soon.

Update:

The story is now in the Inquirer, and it is actually worse than I thought:

"It's a very, very important and fundamental First Amendment issue in this country," Bochetto said of the right to advocate for a cause in an election.

J. Shane Creamer, chairman of the Ethics Board, said he had not seen the lawsuit late yesterday afternoon but took issue with the type of spending Bochetto was contending should be exempt from reporting.

"We're talking about T-shirts and hats that they purchased that said 'Candidate X for City Council,' 'Candidate X for Mayor,' " Creamer said.

Bochetto said that even expenditures on items that are that specific are not subject to public scrutiny if they were not done with input from a particular campaign.

In other words, John 'the progressive' Dougherty is actually suing in Federal Court to effectively overturn the Supreme Court's decision in 2003 (FEC v. McConnell), which upheld the McCain/Feingold ban on soft money, regulated PAC's, etc.

Normally, that wouldn't be a concern and it means that it is overwhelmingly likely that he will lose initially- Federal District Judges aren't prone to ignoring Supreme Court decisions. However, and this is the catch: The newly far-right court has indicated that despite their very recent ruling in McConnell, they might be willing to hear it again, given their new progressive justices, Sam Alito and John Roberts.

So, with any luck (and this is largely irrelevant for this race, because Supreme Court appeals would take a couple years), when the far right talks of heroes in the fight to get unlimited money back into politics, our very own John Dougherty just might join Mitch McConnell and others as a true, blue hero.