He served in the
Pennsylvania State Senate for the 5th district from 1972 to 1979. Dougherty was elected in
1978 and reelected in
1980 as a Republican to the
96th and
97th United States Congresses. In 1978, he defeated
Joshua Eilberg who was indicted on charges for money he took while arranging a $14.5 million Federal grant to a Philadelphia hospital. He was defeated in
1982 by
State Representative Robert Borski after his district was renumbered as the 3rd District. He ran against Borski again in
1992,
1998 and
2000, and was defeated each time. He also ran in Republican primaries for
Mayor of Philadelphia in
1983 and his former House seat in
1986 and as well as for
Philadelphia City Council in 1995. To date, Dougherty is the last Republican to represent a Philadelphia-based district in Congress. He would be the last Republican to represent
any portion of Philadelphia in the House until the 2000 Census resulted in the
Bucks County-based 8th District absorbing a small portion of Philadelphia. ==References==