"Luxury Redefined. Arriving Fall 2008."
So reads the website for The Residences at the Ritz-Carlton, the half-built, super-swell residential tower rising next to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel south of City Hall.
Well, no one ever accused electricians boss John Dougherty of being "luxury redefined," but he might want to arrive this fall as the next state senator from South Philadelphia.
On the same day The Inquirer reported that Dougherty is circulating nominating petitions for a potential run against State Sen. Vincent Fumo, Dougherty apparently received an endorsement from unnamed workers inside The Residences. Those fans nudged open a couple of window panels seven stories up and hung either a luxury bedsheet or a dropcloth out the window with the following message spraypainted in day-glo orange: 
JoHNNY DOC
FOR
SENATE
The sales staff at The Residences didn't appear to know about the sign, and neither did they seem to excited to be joining the Johnny Doc campaign. "GRRRRR!" reacted one sales person. Another said they would alert their production people.
Dougherty apparently can feel the groundswell.
""No one at Local 98, including John Dougherty, was even aware of the sign," said Frank Keel, spokesman for the electricians union. "There are significant pockets of support for John throughout the 1st District. We can only assume the creators of that particular sign are politically astute members of the Building Trades."
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