Former Assistant District Attorney makes
a law-and-order bid for Borough President
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | JAN. 10-JAN. 16, 2020 13
BY MAX PARROTT
A day after Mayor Bill de
Blasio declared the official date
for the Borough President’s special
election to be March 24, a
new, law-and-order challenger
announced a last minute bid for
the office: former Assistant District
Attorney James Quinn.
Though Quinn, a lifelong
Queens resident, is reportedly
a registered Democrat like the
other five declared candidates,
both his background and political
platform described in the
political flyer that was distributed
to QNS on Friday makes
him stand out among the rest of
the field.
“Elect a crime fighter,”
reads the first page of his
campaign pamphlet.
Quinn served as ADA in the
Queens County DA’s Office for 42
years. His platform promises to
fight against many of the recent
criminal justice reforms that
city and state legislators have
championed over the past year.
In the campaign materials,
he vows to stop the closing of
Rikers Island, to stop Mayor
de Blasio from building jails
in Kew Gardens or anywhere
in Queens, and to push back
on the bail reform by allowing
judges to consider a defendant’s
“danger to society” when
setting bail.
The platform contains one
economic policy idea about
working “with businesses like
Amazon to bring high paying
jobs and careers to Queens.”
Though Quinn may not
have widespread political
recognition in the borough,
over the past couple months
he’s come out as an outspoken
critic of the bail reform legislation
that took effect Jan. 1.
His name made the rounds in
November at the top of a document
he prepared that provided
an exhaustive list of the crimes
that fall under the new law. He
recently joined with Councilman
Robert Holden to present
in a forum designed to inform
Kew Gardens residents about
the impact of this legislation,
where he argued that it would
drive up crime rates.
In a race where candidates
have been largely talking about
policies that emphasize racial
and economic justice, Quinn’s
platform is a marked turn toward
the idea of constituents’
safety. The pamphlet argues he
“knows how to protect you and
your families.”
In the Queens DA’s Office,
his roles included Executive Assistant
District Attorney, chief
of the Narcotic Investigations
Bureau, deputy chief of homicide
and criminal trial assistant.
He’s tried over 30 murder
cases and prosecuted hundreds
of “career criminals.”
Quinn lives in Richmond
Hill with his wife Susan. He
was raised in the Ravenswood
Housing Projects and attended
public schools in the Astoria
and Long Island City area before
earning a Bachelor’s from
Columbia University and a law
degree from Fordham.
He will have until Jan. 13 to
collect the 2,000 valid signatures
required to get on the
ballot.
Reach reporter Max Parrott
by e-mail at mparrott@schnepsmedia.
com or by phone at
(718) 260-2507.
Photo provided by the James Quinn campaign
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