Daugherty lost his Precinct 3 seat, which he had held since 2002, to Karen Huber in the 2008 election. Last November, he ran against her in a very tight race, winning by a narrow margin to become the only Republican on the court.
It’s not easy being the odd man out, but Daugherty is used to it.
“I feel like the odd man out, even when I’m not in office,” he said.
Daugherty didn’t start out wanting to enter the political spotlight. He started out his career as a catcher for the minor league arm of the Boston Red Sox, where he played for three years.
“I figured out I wasn’t going to the big leagues, and I didn’t want to play minor league ball my whole life,” Daugherty said. “I told myself it was time to grow up and get my life started.”
He studied at the University of Texas and worked at Rooster Andrews Sporting Goods, where he learned all about how to run a business. After a few years, he set out to open his own sporting goods store, South Austin Sports Center. Later, he opened a bar and grill with batting cages called The Dugout and built a popular sportsplex on Pleasant Valley in 1984.
“It was during the time that I was doing business in the ’80s and ’90s that I found myself always interested in what was going on with city politics with how it affected businesses,” he said.
He was not in favor of the transportation fee that was included in utility bills and disliked the smoking ban that came into effect.
“I thought it was a little onerous to go and tell the businesses what they could do,” he said. “I was one of those people that would go down to the council and say this is really not very fair.”
Traffic was the issue that finally prompted him to run. Over the years, Daugherty has made roads his number one priority, saddling him with the label of “road warrior,” a label he doesn’t think is necessarily accurate or fair.
“I was wondering along with everyone else, why in the world do we have all of this traffic?” he said. “As early as the ’90s, it was real obvious that we were not keeping up with our roadway network. I do think this community needs a roadway champion, and I’m happy to wear that.”
Being the expansion of roads, such as Texas 71 in southwestern Travis County, is among some of the proudest accomplishments from his first period in office.
When he was ousted from the court in 2008, he decided to take on a different challenge. Having sold his sportsplex before joining the commissioners court, he turned his eyes to his next business venture. He decided to open a restaurant in one of the worst economic recessions in history, and he picked a location, the Y in Oak Hill, that had seen a string of failed restaurants.
“It just never had the right thing in it,” he said.
He and his wife, Charlyn, became the primary investors and lined up additional funding. Daugherty is a shrewd businessman and knows what he doesn’t know. He set out to hire some of the best restaurateurs in the business to help make the new venture a success.
“I wanted grade A operators, and I went looking,” Daugherty said. “I found the two guys that made Z’Tejas work.”
Jack Allen’s Kitchen opened in Oak Hill in 2009 and a second location recently opened in Round Rock.
But he was still frustrated by what he described as a lack of interest from elected officials in road projects and made the decision to run for office again in 2012.
He pulled off a narrow victory, he believes, by focusing on roads.
“Traffic is never out of sight or mind because you’re always in it,” he said.
During his next term on the court, he hopes to tackle the growth of the county government, get more youth sports facilities for western Travis County and tackle water issues. But foremost on his mind are roads, projects such Highway 45 Southwest, which would connect FM 1626 and Loop 1 South. He is also eyeing improvements to Texas 71, 290, Loop 360, RM 620 and more.
“The first thing I think you have to do to have any positive movement at all with roadways is that you’ve got to have a leader,” he said. “You’ve got to have someone willing to say that this is my number one goal.”
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