"This will be a great exercise in the regular folks standing up and saying, 'Enough of this bullshit,'" Dougherty says. "We're going to try to make the debate more than just about rounding up people and tossing them back across the border and thinking that will solve everything, including our economic crisis."

For more than two decades, Dougherty expose the misdeeds of those in power -- including the infamous Keating 5 (of which Senator John McCain was a 'member'), J. Fife Symington III (then the governor of Arizona), Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and polygamist leader Warren Jeffs.

To be sure, Dougherty faces an uphill struggle, first to win the Democratic nomination against two challengers (if he collects enough signatures to get on the ballot), and then to best the winner of the nationally watched Republican primary battle between incumbent John McCain and J.D. Hayworth.

"It's totally grassroots, totally seat-of-the-pants," Dougherty says of his quest, which he likens to the New Rebel Alliance of Star Wars fame taking on Darth Vader and company. "I want people to have fun with this and to have a serious opportunity to listen to what we have to say."

Dougherty says he has enough money committed to him from unnamed benefactors to "get through this first hurdle," which is to qualify for the ballot for the late-August primary election.