Appointee Gillibrand faces ex-House member DioGuardi

WASHINGTON - Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has been deemed vulnerable to a challenge since Jan. 27, 2009, the day she hastily took office after being the surprise pick to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton, who left to become U.S. secretary of state.

Now the Democrat gets a chance to win the job in her own right in a special election on Nov. 2 to finish the last two years of Clinton's term.

Standing in her way is Joe DioGuardi, a former two-term congressman from Westchester who's been trying to return to Washington since the day he lost a third-term bid in 1988.

Neither is well known to New Yorkers, though Gillibrand was in the headlines after a Senate leader called her the "hottest member" and DioGuardi got attention through his daughter Kara, a former "American Idol" judge.

Polls on the race are bouncing around, giving Gillibrand a lead that ranges from 1 point to 21 points. Yet both sides signal they consider the race competitive by airing positive TV ads about themselves while going negative on their opponents.

Still, they represent the partisan divide now in Congress.

Gillibrand, 43, of Hudson, backs the Obama agenda of federal stimulus and raising taxes on the wealthiest. She supports abortion rights.

DioGuardi, 70, of Ossining, joins the GOP opposition to that agenda. He seeks to maintain the Bush tax cuts while shrinking government. He strongly opposes abortion.

DioGuardi focuses on debt

When DioGuardi announced his bid for Senate in March, he pointed out he's campaigning now on the same issues he did a quarter of a century ago.

In 1984, DioGuardi won his first election to Congress after working 22 years at the Arthur Andersen accounting firm. He won re-election in 1986.

"I never quit on the message that I brought to Congress 25 years ago," DioGuardi said.

Yet he voted unpredictably in the House: siding with conservatives on taxes and defense but breaking with them 40 percent of the time.

In 1988, DioGuardi lost his seat, and he ran and lost in three elections from 1992 to 1996 trying to get back to the House.

His message is the same: "We're spending money we don't have. We're borrowing from countries we don't trust. . . . And if we keep on this track we will put America on a grossly unsustainable fiscal course."

His cure: No new taxes and better accounting of how the government spends money.

As congressman he passed a law requiring federal agencies to have a chief financial officer.

Now he wants Congress to approve the federal debt ceiling monthly instead of yearly, after a mandatory grilling of budget chiefs on the Senate floor.

DioGuardi, a licensed CPA who calls himself a "self-made man," trails in campaign cash and polls, but says he beat a better-financed rival in the primary.

He's had run-ins with the GOP in the past but now relies on its support. His campaign is largely self-funded, and he's running an ad stressing his modest Italian-American roots. He said he's running because "people have finally caught up with my issues."

Gillibrand: Middle class key

Twenty months after Gov. David A. Paterson appointed her to the Senate, Gillibrand's transformation from moderate upstate congresswoman to liberal junior senator is complete.

Consider the National Rifle Association: It gave her an "A" as a House member, but now gives her an "F" as a senator.

"Certainly on Second Amendment issues I've broadened my interests," said Gillibrand, whose campaign lists a half-dozen measures she supports to crack down on illegal guns and trafficking.

But overall, she said, she hasn't changed her core views.

"I have a record of fighting for middle-class families, fighting for lower property taxes, making sure that New Yorkers come first," she said.

"I also have established a strong record on accountability and transparency and fighting for a government that actually works for the middle class."

Gillibrand pointed to the $30-billion small-business lending bill Congress recently passed as an example of addressing a top constituent concern.

But two of her best-known issues remain up in the air: the bill to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" military policy on gays, and her Senate version of the 9/11 Zadroga health bill for ailing first responders and residents.

Fellow New York Sen. Charles Schumer and other Democratic leaders solidly back Gillibrand, the daughter of a politically connected upstate family. They cleared the field of party rivals and helped her raise cash.

Gillibrand's ads address voter anger: she never calls herself a Democrat, she distances herself from Washington, and she paints herself as a "reformer" pushing transparency.

"At the end of the day," Gillibrand said, "this election will be about our records."

Candidates trade charges

Recently both candidates have gone negative, calling each other liars and pointing out past unsavory actions. A sampling:

Gillibrand e-mails and an ad stress violations of campaign-finance law arising from DioGuardi's 1984 and 1988 races.

DioGuardi called the 1984 finding of excess contributions "routine." He said he wasn't fined in the 1988 court rulings that found two firms illegally reimbursed worker donations.

In turn, DioGuardi accused Gillibrand of hiding her work for major tobacco companies when she was a lawyer.

Gillibrand responded by saying that while in Congress she's had a "pro-health, anti-tobacco voting record."

At 2 p.m. Friday, Gillibrand and DioGuardi will engage in their first debate, which will be streamed lived on the WABC-TV website and then broadcast on the station Sunday at 11 a.m.