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.
It’s hard to overstate Dougherty’s power in Pennsylvania:
https://www.politico.com/story/2019...crats-indictment-union-political-boss-1138312