| Joseph DioGuardi | |
|---|---|
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 20th district |
|
| In office January 3, 1985 – January 3, 1989 |
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| Preceded by | Richard Ottinger |
| Succeeded by | Nita Lowey |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 20, 1940 New York City, New York |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Carol DioGuardi (died 1997) Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi |
| Alma mater | Fordham University |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Joseph J. DioGuardi (pronounced /diː.ɵˈɡwɑrdi/; born September 20, 1940) is a certified public accountant and a Republican politician. DioGuardi served in the House of Representatives representing the 20th Congressional district of New York from 1985 to 1989.[1] He was also the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in New York during the 2010 special election, but lost to incumbent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
DioGuardi, a former partner at Arthur Andersen & Co., also serves as president of the Albanian American Civic League, an organization he co-founded with his wife, Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi.[2] He is the father of former American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi.
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DioGuardi's father, Joseph Sr., immigrated to the United States from Greci, Italy, a town with a Catholic Albanian majority. The family traces its roots to the Arbëreshë: Albanians who came to Italy to avoid Ottoman persecution.[3] His father eventually established a grocery and vegetable store in East Bronx. The family moved to Westchester County, New York, in 1957. Joseph Sr. married Grace Paparella on January 8, 1939, and the couple settled in Orchard Hills in White Plains.[4] Their son, Joseph J., is the oldest of three DioGuardi children. After the family's move to Westchester, he attended Fordham Preparatory School. In 1957, he landed a summer job as a busboy for Elmwood Country Club in Westchester County. He advanced to a waiter position, where he continued, following his admission to Fordham University.
DioGuardi graduated from Fordham University in 1962 and was hired at Arthur Andersen & Co.. He became a Certified Public Accountant and achieved partner status at age 31, after 10 years at the firm.[5] DioGuardi specialized in federal and state taxation for non-profit organizations, as well as the tax economics of charitable giving.
DioGuardi ran for and was elected to Congress in 1984 as a Republican, in a Congressional district that was predominantly Democratic, with a sizable minority population in Mount Vernon, Yonkers and New Rochelle.[6] In his second congressional race in 1986, DioGuardi defeated former congresswoman Bella Abzug, who had relocated from Greenwich Village in Manhattan to Mount Vernon.[7]
He was the original author of the Chief Financial Officer and Federal Financial Reform Act (CFO Act), signed by President George H.W. Bush in 1990. The act mandated the assignment of a Chief Financial Officer to each major department and agency of the U.S. government. Former Comptroller General of the United States Charles Bowsher later said in testimony before the U.S. Senate that since the enactment of the bill, “We have seen important progress in directly confronting serious financial management weaknesses.” [8]
He founded and co-chaired the Congressional Long Island Sound and Hudson River Caucuses, which secured substantial increases in federal support.[5] He co-founded with Congressman Jerrold Nadler the New York Task Force for Port, Rail and Industrial Development in order to restore lost jobs to New York's manufacturing and transportation sectors and preserve a portion of the Port of New York on the New York side of the harbor.[9][10]
Of the 1.55 million Black American military servicemen, not one had received the Congressional Medal of Honor. DioGuardi and Democratic Congressman Mickey Leland initiated legislation to confer the honor on Black World War I and World War II military heroes who had been recommended for, but had not received, the medal.[11] Nine Congressional Medals of Honor have since been awarded.
DioGuardi was an active member of the Executive Committee of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus (CHRC) and worked with Caucus founder Tom Lantos (D-CA) on apartheid in South Africa, and on the repression of Jews in the Soviet Union and the Tibetan people and monks in China.
DioGuardi ran for re-election in 1988 and was defeated by Nita Lowey. During the campaign, the New York Times reported: "Several employees explained in interviews that they were given $2,000 each in company checks and were asked to deposit them into their own bank accounts and then write personal checks for the same amount to the DioGuardi campaign. Joseph Crabtree, the company's chief executive, and his son Robert, the company's president, served on the campaign's finance committee." The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission and Mr. Crabtree resigned from the campaign. DioGuardi steadfastly denied the charges and his campaign also filed its own complaint with the State Board of Elections that argued, contrary to his opponent's commercial, that the employees in question put funds in a separate "People For DioGuardi" campaign account as required by state law.[12]
In 1992 DioGuardi ran again against incumbent Nita Lowey and lost.[13]
in 1994 DioGuardi ran for the Republican nomination in the race to replace Hamilton Fish Sr., but lost to Sue Kelly, who went on to win in the general election. DioGuardi contested the general election on the Conservative Party line.[14]
In 1996 DioGuardi challenged incumbent Sue Kelly for the Republican nomination and lost.[15] He contested the general election on the lines of the Conservative Party and the Right-to-Life Party.[16]
On May 22, 2008, Republican delegates from each of the five counties represented in the 19th district met in Mahopac, New York, to endorse a candidate. DioGuardi finished third out of three candidates in the endorsement process[17]
On March 16, 2010, DioGuardi announced at Grand Central Terminal in New York City that he was seeking the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat held by incumbent Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Gillibrand had been appointed to the seat by Gov. Paterson after it was vacated by Hillary Clinton. DioGuardi pledged to raise over $10 million in his campaign.[18] He secured the nomination for U.S. Senate from the Conservative Party of New York on May 28, 2010,[19] but did not secure enough votes from the New York Republican party contingencies at their state convention on June 2 to appear on the Republican line in the New York primary race on September 14. On August 9, the New York Board of Elections officially certified DioGuardi's qualification for the September 14th GOP primary.[20]
During the campaign, DioGuardi attracted some press attention for his advocacy of Albanian rights (he was photographed burning the flag of Serbia outside the Serbian Embassy in New York City) and his statement that without his efforts, there would be no independent Kosovo.[21]
DioGuardi narrowly defeated David Malpass in the primary election (with Bruce Blakeman finishing distant third), securing the Republican line in the general election. He also, after the primary, secured the line of the nascent Taxpayers Party of New York when Malpass stepped aside.
Prior to the election, DioGuardi was linked to a $1.7 Billion Dollar Ponzi by the SEC. From 2007 to 2009, the former Westchester Republican congressman was paid $5,000 a month as a consultant for the subsidiary Medical Capital Corp. - and also got $16,000 a year to sit on boards of various other MCH subsidiaries. DioGuardi, a trained accountant, claims he was oblivious to any wrongdoing. "As a consultant, Joe was tasked with saving hospitals in New York from being shut down, but knew nothing of the schemes that were occurring behind the scenes," said his spokesman Brian Hummell, adding that his boss "has never seen the books." [22]
In 1989, DioGuardi founded a non-profit organization that is known as Truth in Government. According to its website, "the mission of Truth in Government is to strengthen our country’s financial foundation by promoting accountability and transparency in Congressional spending and reporting."[23]
In 1992, DioGuardi authored the book, Unaccountable Congress: It Doesn't Add Up, published by Regnery. The book was re-released in 2010 with a new introduction that claimed to explain the chronology of events leading to the financial crisis of 2008.
DioGuardi lives in Ossining, New York, with his wife, Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi, a writer, foreign-policy analyst, human rights activist and former book publisher. His first wife, Carol, died in 1997 of ovarian cancer. His son John is a counselor at the Phoenix House, a national non-profit drug treatment organization on whose board Joseph has served since 1972. His daughter Kara DioGuardi is a songwriter and artist who has appeared as a judge on the American Idol show, and has also been involved in Phoenix House.
| United States House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Richard Ottinger |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 20th congressional district 1985–1989 |
Succeeded by Nita M. Lowey |