Once upon a time, Joe DioGuardi was best known as the first practicing Certified Public Accountant elected to Congress, the guy who handed Bella Abzug her final defeat, and who in turn was ousted from the House after two terms by Nita Lowey.

He lost subsequent bids to return to Congress from Westchester County, to Lowey again in '92 and, in a neighboring district, to Sue Kelly in the '94 and '96 GOP primaries (in the latter race, Kelly was the incumbent).

Since leaving Capitol Hill, he founded the Albanian American Civic League and became a strong proponent of Kosovo's independence.

Now, of course, he's best known as the father of Kara DioGuardi, one of the four judges on Fox's "American Idol" TV show.

But today DioGuardi — Joe, not Kara — re-entered the political world by declaring his candidacy for the Senate seat held by Democratic appointee Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

For all the drama involving Gillibrand and the Democrats who considered — but decided against — challenging her in the primary, and for all the complaints about her willingness to switch positions since her promotion from House to Senate, there has been very little talk about possible GOP candidates. Until DioGuardi's announcement today, the only Republican in the race was former Long Island lawmaker Bruce Blakeman, but he has absolutely no name ID in the state. Mort Zuckerman, a Democrat and publisher of the N.Y. Daily News, thought about running as a Republican but ultimately said no.

The newest name to emerge on the GOP side is Dan Senor, who served in the Bush Defense Department. Senor, who was born in upstate Utica and is the husband of CNN anchor Campbell Brown, has been meeting with GOP and Conservative Party leaders in recent days. Another name out there is Diana Taylor, a banking regulator and the longtime companion of NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has a contentious relationship with Gillibrand.

(Previous N.Y. Senate blog post: Harold Ford won't challenge Gillibrand, March 2, 2010.)

Current rating: Democrat favored.

There's news out of Illinois as well. Republicans finally have a gubernatorial nominee. He's Bill Brady, a very conservative downstate state senator, who eventually won the Feb. 2 primary — after an arduous count — by 193 votes out of more than 767,000 cast. The second-place finisher, fellow state Sen. Kirk Dillard, conceded last week. Many observers felt that Dillard, from the Chicago suburbs, would have been a stronger opponent to Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat who assumed office following the impeachment and removal of Rod Blagojevich in January 2009.

But Quinn has his own problems. He also narrowly won his party's nomination, by just 8,400 votes over state Comptroller Dan Hynes in a nasty battle, and recently called for raising the state income tax from 3 percent to 4 percent — a politically risky move by an incumbent who is still trying to establish himself.

(Previous Ill. gov. blog: Quinn wins primary, GOP race still unresolved, Feb. 4, 2010.)

Current rating: Tossup.

Tags: On The Ballot