Keep your eye on Joseph DioGuardi, the Republican challenging Kirsten Gillibrand’s Senate seat in New York. We had a long conversation this week, and he is charismatic, sharp and very knowledgeable. DioGuardi spent his childhood between the East Bronx and his immigrant parents’ produce store in Harlem. He’s an accountant by profession, but he served in the House from 1984 to 1988. He was so outraged at the irresponsible budgeting he saw that he wrote Unaccountable Congress: It Doesn’t Add Up, and founded truthingovernment.org, which tracks Congress’ largesse. My profile of DioGuardi is here. Some highlights:

Though a former congressman, he thinks of himself as an insurgent against the New York political establishment, one that he considers corrupt: “At the Republican ballot-nomination convention, the political factions did the same old pay-to-play that killed this state. I had over 25 percent [of the vote] and I knew I should be nominated. Somehow they finagled and went to visit some people; somehow I’m kept below 25. But what did Joe DioGuardi do? As I walked out of that room and saw a humongous section of the press, I had a smile on, and I turned back and I faced the big ballroom and I said, ‘You just saw the inside game. You watch Joe DioGuardi now go back to the people, and watch what’s gonna happen.’ And that’s what I did. Now don’t you think I’m going to do that against Gillibrand?” …
[His anger for trial lawyers] doesn’t compare to his hatred for the national debt, which he calls “congressional child abuse, sending our kids the bill.” He says, over and over again, “We’re spending money we don’t have. We’re borrowing from countries that don’t share our values.” His expertise as an accountant makes him think the national debt is being erroneously accounted — he calls the current budget “Enron accounting” — and that’s the first block to reform. “I’m dropping the $63 trillion bomb in this race. The national debt is not $14 trillion like Gillibrand and Obama want you to believe. That’s just the bonded debt. And guess where 40 percent of that is? The Social Security Trust Fund. But there has never been a trust fund or a lock-box. That’s all political rhetoric. If we want to be serious about the debt, we gotta add liabilities, which actuaries compute every day for companies, otherwise they’d be indicted. The federal government has not funded it; it took it out and put it in the general fund.” He accounts the $63 trillion as follows: “Take the $14 trillion, then add $8 trillion for Social Security, $37 trillion for Medicare, and then add Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and all the Government Sponsored Enterprises, which can borrow with the faith of the federal government. $63 trillion.”

Right now, DioGuardi is trailing. But Gillibrand’s approval ratings have been low throughout her tenure, meaning she’s vulnerable. If word spreads about DioGuardi, he’ll have a shot. He makes a convincing case that a CPA — and one less lawyer — is just what the Senate needs.