Christine Quinn

Christine C. Quinn has spent her career in public service, fighting for policies and services that are critical to the lives of New Yorkers. Chris started out as a housing organizer, helping low-income tenants stay in their homes and protecting affordable housing. As the director of the Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, Chris worked closely with the NYPD against hate crimes.

Since 1999, Chris has served Manhattan's lower west side in the City Council. Elected Speaker in 2006, Chris has negotiated on-time, balanced City budgets, reducing government spending, and preventing firehouse closings, teacher layoffs and cuts to key services.

Quinn has worked to find innovative and fiscally responsible ways to spark job creation. She has been a leader in the fight to eliminate unfair taxes, particularly the double taxation of freelancers and sole proprietors. She has fought to eliminate unnecessary regulation on small businesses, and created a program that has drastically reduced the average wait for government inspections for new businesses. She has worked to diversify our economy, investing in growing job sectors like health care and food manufacturing. And Chris has helped our City develop an economy of innovation through tax credits and initiatives to support new ventures in the five boroughs.

A longtime advocate for affordable housing, Quinn renewed incentives for developers who build affordable units. Protecting tenants is a top priority -- Speaker Quinn passed legislation to allow landlords to be taken to court for threatening tenants or interrupting essential services, as well as forcing landlords to repair dangerous apartments. Her innovative Housing Asset Renewal Program has turned unsold condominiums into affordable middle-income housing.

Speaker Quinn has long advocated investment in early childhood education and has worked to expand the City's universal Pre-Kindergarten program. She has also worked extensively to better our middle schools, and at her urging the Department of Education has funded innovative new programs at the highest-need middle schools in the city.

Quinn and the Council led the environmental movement with legislation, the first of its kind in the nation, requiring manufacturers to collect and recycle electronic waste, and passed a bill establishing a plastic bag recycling program. And Quinn has passed bills to improve energy efficiency in large commercial buildings -- a move that will reduce the city's carbon footprint.

As the first openly gay Speaker of the City Council, Quinn has worked extensively on issues of justice and equality. She emerged as a leading voice in the fight for marriage equality in New York State, and has made fighting hate crimes a particular emphasis.

Speaker Quinn legislated against harassment at reproductive health clinics and exposed anti-abortion front groups that pretend to be family planning clinics. She coordinated a public/private partnership to expand free HIV testing for tens of thousands of public hospital patients.

Working with immigrants' rights organizations, Quinn recently ended the injustice at Riker's Island that was turning innocent immigrants over to the INS and splitting up families.

Quinn has worked extensively to expand access to healthy food and reduce hunger. She's expanded access to food stamps for those that need them, and make sure they could be used to buy fresh produce at Greenmarkets around the city.

She recently announced her candidacy for New York City mayor.

Quinn and her wife, Kim Catullo, live in Chelsea, with their dogs.