Donald "Gus" Dougherty Jr., 42, president of Dougherty Electric Inc., and no relation to the pol, could face 51 to 63 months in federal prison under advisory sentencing guidelines.

However, the contractor did not plead guilty to two charges involving the candidate in Tuesday's Democratic primary.

These involve allegedly making illegal payments to John Dougherty by selling him a North Wildwood condo in 2003 for $24,000 less than its appraised value and performing more than $115,000 worth of electrical work in 2004 and 2005 to John Dougherty's Moyamensing Street rowhouse.

Gus Dougherty will stand trial on those charges next month. He remains free on bail.

Dougherty did not bill the union leader for the charges until after he learned he was under federal investigation, the indictment said.

It is a federal crime for a contractor to give anything of value to an officer of a labor organization that represents the contractor's employees.

John Dougherty is business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 98.

While the Doughertys aren't related, they have been pals since boyhood.

Gus Dougherty and defense lawyer Eric Sitarchuk declined comment yesterday about the charges involving John Dougherty.

The powerful union leader, known as "Johnny Doc," has not been charged with any wrongdoing and has denied doing anything improper. Federal agents have searched his Pennsport home as part of a sweeping probe.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Anita Eve told the court that the feds plan to call a former IBEW Local 98 official as a witness who will testify about the relationship between Gus Dougherty and John Dougherty.

When Gus Dougherty was indicted last June, U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan described the condo transaction and the house renovations allegedly done for John Dougherty as "sweetheart deals" and said the investigation into the matter was continuing.

The union leader is running for the Democratic Party nomination for the state Senate seat being vacated by Vince Fumo.

Yesterday, Gus Dougherty pleaded guilty to stealing $869,000 from IBEW Local 98's employee-benefits plan, maintaining an "under the table" cash payroll and dodging taxes on more than $2.5 million paid to himself and his workers and filing false tax returns for 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Dougherty also pleaded guilty to bribing a bank officer with Super Bowl tickets and accommodations, and renovations to the banker's Voorhees, N.J., home, to obtain $5.3 million in loans at a time when he had a poor credit history.

He also copped a plea to falsifying a heath-care form by putting the niece of an IBEW Local 98 official who worked for the Pennsport Civic Association on his company's health plan and lying to the insurer that the woman was a Dougherty Electric employee. *