It was just two days ago that we brought you this story involving charges of fraud against the Dems in New York:
MORE VOTER FRAUD? Dem. Party Boss Charged With Ballot Fraud and Forgery!
Today its the same story, different city, as another top Democrat party boss has just been raided by the Feds and indicted!
This time from Philly, PA.
From Politico:
The indictment of one of Pennsylvania’s most powerful behind-the-scenes political players is rattling Democrats in a state that’s expected to be a key 2020 battleground.
The bombshell charges announced Wednesday against building trades leader John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty — a Philadelphia labor kingpin whose union is the single biggest independent source of campaign funding in the state — threaten to sap statehouse and congressional Democrats of a mega-donor, slow the party’s momentum in the Philadelphia suburbs, and sideline the man who orchestrated the Democratic takeover of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
That court radically redrew the state’s congressional map last year, leading to the Democratic pickup of a handful of congressional seats in November.
Dougherty’s tentacles spread so far that Republicans already think it could be a boon for President Donald Trump’s election chances in 2020.
“Anytime there’s a vacuum, it gets filled, and I believe there’s an opportunity for the Republicans to take advantage of the fact that the Democratic machinery is minus one piece,” said Charlie Gerow, a Pennsylvania-based GOP consultant.
It’s hard to overstate Dougherty’s power in Pennsylvania: His union’s heavy purse and legendary get-out-the-vote operation helped elect congressmen, governors, judges, mayors, state legislators, and city council members. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98 was a major donor to Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, played a critical role in putting Democratic Congressman Brendan Boyle in office, and was almost single-handedly responsible for making Jim Kenney the mayor of Philadelphia.
A few years before the nation’s high-stakes midterm elections, the union’s deep pockets helped put three justices on the state Supreme Court, including Dougherty’s brother, Kevin.
“I would argue they’re the single-most effective political organization in the state,” said Ryan Costello, a former Republican congressman from suburban Chester County who was a casualty of the redrawn congressional map. “They’re thinking five, six, seven steps ahead.”
Dougherty was charged with embezzlement, bribery, and theft in a 116-count indictment that alleged he and others stole more than $600,000 in union funds and repeatedly strong-armed public and private officials with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.
Prosecutors said Dougherty and his associates used the union’s credit cards to buy everything from Bruce Springsteen tickets to luxury clothing gift cards to baby wipes to “men’s exercise pants.” They claim Dougherty dispatched a Local 98 official who is also a city councilman, to retaliate against a towing company that tried to cart off his car, and squeeze Comcast into giving millions of dollars of work to a friend’s company.
Dougherty also allegedly threatened a children’s hospital administrator to give his union a job, saying, “You don’t want a city thing shutting down. We have had other hospitals shut down.”
Dougherty, who is the leader of the Philadelphia electricians union as well as the city’s building trades, has long denied any wrongdoing. Several top lieutenants in his union’s political operation were also charged.
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