Last week, the Ethics Board and the City answered John Dougherty’s attempt to destroy Pennsylvania campaign finance law. As I said way back when, I have little doubt that Dougherty will (again) lose in Federal Court, because Federal District Court judges aren’t prone to overturning the Supreme Court. So, it was pretty cool to read a brief for the Ethics Board, clobbering George Bochetto, et. al. Even cooler was that one of the authors of it was someone many us know… (See the IBEW complaint here, and the Ethics Board response here.)

Doc will lose in Federal Court. In fact, his case will probably be dismissed without ever getting to trial. However, things in Court go slowly, and that was likely their motivation to begin with, right? Just delay showing how ol’ Johnny Doc spends his money till he is done winning in the State Senate. Great.

Of course, once you get to an ever more conservative Supreme Court, who knows exactly what would happen. And, if Doc gets Pennsylvania campaign finance destroyed? So be it. Campaign finance might be important, but getting John Dougherty into the State Senate is paramount, baby!

The funniest thing about the IBEW complaint is in just how bad it is. Generally, for example, when you are writing a brief in Federal Court, you would mention all the really important cases. But, the IBEW complaint actually just skips over cases as if they don’t exist. Its kind of hilarious. The other thing you generally do in briefs is to note a rule that the Supreme Court has given (in this case for PACs), and then relate that rule to your case. But, they don’t do that either, and instead don’t seem to understand the difference between PACs, individuals, corporations, political parties and candidates.

Shockingly, the Ethics Board noticed the ‘deficiencies’ in Doc’s argument, and took them on, and will win big.

But, the best part of the Ethics Board response is that taking away all the legal standards and precedent that is ignored, they perfectly summarize what this case is really about: John Dougherty thinks the only person who should be able to tell him what to do is… John Dougherty:

For its part, COPE does not dispute that these are substantial government interests – nor could it, given that the Supreme Court endorsed them in Buckley and has reaffirmed that ever since. Instead, COPE maintains that it should get to decide for itself whether a particular expenditure is for express advocacy or issue advocacy, with the latter wholly exempt from state and local and (since the statutes are in relevant part identical) federal reporting and disclosure rules. The argument advanced by COPE, however, would put the fox in charge of the henhouse, resting the decision to report and disclose solely in the discretion of those with reasons to evade disclosure.

......

I am listening to the WHYY debate now between Doc, Larry Farnese and Anne Dicker, and Doc was asked about a number of things: the FBI searching his house, the conflicts of interest, etc. Doc's response is what Doc's response almost always is when he gets asked questions that he doesn't like: That he does a lot of good things. He does, of course, do plenty of good stuff- charities, etc. He was a little more forthcoming than he generally is, but... to me, it just is not nearly enough, and doesn't answer what we need to know.