The Arizona Guardian

By Dennis Welch
The Arizona Guardian

U.S. Senate candidate John Dougherty has an economic stimulus plan for journalists: He wants to hire them.

Dougherty, battling for the Democratic nomination in the Aug. 24 primary, said last week he'd hire up to a dozen investigative reporters to root out government waste and corruption if elected.

The team of reporters would act as a government watchdog, aggressively reporting on government agencies and programs. Their findings, Dougherty said, would be used in regular oversight committee hearings.

"There's not a lot of accountability out there," Dougherty said Friday after appearing on his first televised debate on KTVK-3TV with his three Democratic rivals.

Dougherty joked afterword this plan would benefit the high number of out of work journalists laid-off in recent years due to industry-wide cutbacks. "Look what's happened to our profession," he said. "It's been decimated."

Before stepping into the race for U.S. Senate, Dougherty spent more than 25 years as an investigative journalist for newspapers such as the Dayton Daily News in Dayton, Ohio, the East Valley Tribune in Mesa and the Phoenix New Times.

Dougherty is competing against former state lawmaker Cathy Eden, former Tucson City Councilman Rodney Glassman and political organizer Randy Parraz for the nomination.

A recent poll conducted last month by the Arizona Guardian showed Glassman has a small lead. But the results also showed the race continues to be very competitive with about 80 percent of likely Democratic voters still unsure whom they would vote for.

Dougherty has tried to use his investigative reporting background to separate himself from the field. During the debate, Dougherty, referring to the Gulf oil spill, said there would "be no BPs under my watch."

The British-based oil conglomerate is responsible for what is now considered the worst environmental disaster in American history. It's been widely reported that critics of BP believe stronger government oversight could have prevented the catastrophe.

One of Dougherty's campaign videos focuses on the offshore spill. The 60-second ad accuses U.S. Sen. John McCain, a Republican, of supporting the expansion of offshore oil drilling.

During one point, the ad shows oil spewing out of an underwater pipe into the ocean. At the same time a voiceover says: "a lot of this could have been prevented. I don't know where the regulators were."

With a team of investigative reporters, Dougherty says he could prevent future disasters like this from occurring. Dougherty said he would put each reporter on a very specific area, such as U.S. Interior Department.

Once there, the reporters would work the agency or program like a beat and file regular reports with his office. "They'd become experts," he said. "Their job would be to know everything that's going on."

Dougherty said he got the idea after learning U.S. Senators usually hire large staffs. The Democratic candidate said the reporters would help him get timely information that could be used to cut down on waste and abuses.

“The government has a lot of power to regulate,” he said.