By Mondo Times editors
Boulder Colorado USA
Posted on May 13, 2010 at 11:03am

Phoenix New Times Reporter Challenges John McCain for Arizona Senate Seat

-- The Daily Beast reported on May 12, 2010:

"Imagine if Bob Woodward had set aside his Watergate reporting and decided to battle Richard Nixon at the ballot box. That’s the dynamic unfolding now in Arizona, as one of the state’s best investigative journalists—who broke stories about Sen. John McCain’s involvement in the notorious Keating Five savings-and-loan scandal—has decided to challenge McCain for reelection this fall.

It’s a bootstraps effort, mounted with the aid of a campaign bus of 1978 vintage—christened the “Strayhound”—and a staff of 15 old friends camped out in a Phoenix bungalow previously rented by the Obama campaign. And it’s hardly a sure thing; the reporter, John Dougherty, has two weeks to muster enough signatures to get his name on the ballot—at which point he’d face four other Democrats vying for the chance to meet McCain in November, one of which is significantly better funded at this point than the newspaperman.

Dougherty got his start in the news business as a gofer on The Washington Post sports desk in the 1970s. Since then, the 53-year-old has made a name for himself with his incisive reporting on Arizona officials and government malfeasance, notably his stories on former Gov. Fife Symington, who resigned from office following felony convictions for fraud (he was later acquitted and pardoned by President Clinton). After Dougherty began looking into Warren Jeffs, the polygamous religious leader found himself on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Dougherty was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by his editors at the Phoenix New Times, an alternative newsweekly.

“He doesn’t suffer fools. Unfortunately, in Arizona, he’s surrounded by them,” said Michael Lacey, executive editor of Village Voice Media, which owns the New Times."

The full story:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-12/mccains-new-nemesis/full/

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