Former Missouri state Sen. Pat Dougherty is back in town after the close of the legislation session.

Dougherty was term limited out in January 2007 (Sen. Jeff Smith is his successor in the 4th Senatorial District). But he occupied a familiar pace in Jefferson City down the home stretch this year:

Working to keep bad things from happening in the realm of social justice, and maybe helping to make a few good things happen, too.

This session Dougherty was in the capitol as an employee of Catholic Charities in St. Louis. His main mission was to try to bring sanity to the immigration debate.

The best he can say is that the bill that passed, bad as it is, could have been much worse.

Those who have followed Dougherty’s political career know him to be a cheerful guy with a happy mix of idealism and practicality. He is prodigiously hardworking and knows how to discern the legislation landscape, spying opportunities to get things done.

I met with him this afternoon to ask what he sees as the best chances to make progress in the coming years on his pet causes: health care for the poor, child welfare, immigration.

I expected his ordinary optimism to leave me with one or two concrete possibilities. He wouldn’t give me anything.

He says progress in Missouri now depends people of good conscience returning to the basics — fundamentals, you might say: people reflecting on how to transform their faith into action, understanding that “faith without action is empty.”

Break through on this, Dougherty says, and the possibilities for progress are endless.

He points to a program called JustFaith, which he sees as a powerful tool for helping people to draw that connection in very practical ways.

He suggests keeping an eye out for organizing announcements later this summer.

This is from a politician able navigate Ward meetings with the best of them — and whose public moves are best seen as means for getting things done.

(Photo: Eddie Roth)