A special election to determine who our next Queens Borough President will be is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, March 24th. ALL registered voters regardless of party may cast a ballot. Since our last issue, some candidates have either dropped out or failed to make the ballot. Others have recently thrown their hats into the ring. Currently running are: Elizabeth Crowley, Costa Constantinides and Donovan Richards – profiled in our last issue – and the following candidates. Their bios were taken from their campaign websites:

Anthony Miranda

For most of his adult life, Anthony Miranda has worked in the public service sector as a Law Enforcement Officer and as a Public Advocate. It has always been an honor for him to serve communities in New York and around the country by tackling serious and critical issues affecting our most vulnerable populations.

Anthony is a lifelong New Yorker. He grew up in an area that was once considered a tough section — which helped make him a conscientious person. He was born to Mercedes and Sigfredo Miranda as the youngest of their eight children. He excelled in school and participated in many of the community-based programs his mother helped found and organize. Anthony graduated with an Associate's degree from New York City College of Technology and a B.A. from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. With the desire to serve and improve the community he lived in, he decided to pursue a career in the New York City Police Department. After 20+ years of law enforcement experience, he retired as a decorated sergeant. During his tenure in the police department, he received multiple commendations and decorations.

Despite these accolades, he experienced rejection through many closed doors and was passed over for special assignments and units. Seeing other Latino and Black officers experience similar situations, he met with a core group of fellow Latino police officers with the promise of changing this for the better.

In 1996, they established the National Latino Officers Association, which is an organization that is a nationally acknowledged fraternal and advocacy organization that strives to promote tolerance toward, and understanding of, the Latino culture in all public and private agencies, especially in law enforcement communities. The organization creates strong bonds between the Latino community and other law enforcement agencies and ensures equal representation in hiring and promotional practices. To date, Anthony is the chairperson of the organization and continues to fervently fight to level the playing field when it comes to civil rights, advocating publicly and working with those impacted directly.

Anthony lives with his family in Fresh Meadows, Queens. He is happily married to Sylvia Miranda and has three beautiful boys: Antonio ‒ a graduate of Binghamton University who joined the NYPD in January 2020, Andres ‒ an educational masters student at SUNY Cortland, who will be teaching in Syracuse starting in 2020, and Alejandro, a seventh grader at The Bell Academy in Bayside, Queens.

Jim Quinn

A lifelong resident of Queens, Jim has dedicated his life to serving his community. Jim was born to working class parents in Long Island City where he was raised in the Ravenswood Housing Projects. From an early age, his parents instilled in him the value of hard work and giving back. Jim was accepted into the renowned Brooklyn Technical High School and put himself through Columbia University and Fordham Law School working as a cab driver, security guard, mailman and store clerk.

After graduating from law school, Jim answered a calling to public service. He joined the Queens District Attorney's office where he served as an ADA for 42 years.
Jim quickly made his mark as a successful prosecutor, trying more than 30 murder cases and getting hundreds of career criminals off the streets, while helping to establish dozens of alternative sentencing programs for young people, veterans, mentally ill and chemically addicted defendants. He rose through the ranks to become Chief of the Narcotics Bureau where he prosecuted violent drug gangs, including the notorious Supreme Team responsible for as many as 40 homicides.

Under former District Attorney Richard Brown, Jim was appointed Executive Assistant District Attorney where he was responsible for managing the Career Criminal and Gang Violence Bureaus. Under his supervision, those bureaus targeted violent gangs like MS-13 and the Snow Gang, helping to reduce murders in Queens County by over 80% since 1992.

In 2017, when Mayor de Blasio announced his plan to close Rikers Island, threatening the public safety of all New Yorkers, Jim became a leading opponent to block that effort. He was also an early critic of the changes to the state's bail and discovery laws that went into effect this year. As one of Queens' most seasoned and respected law enforcement professionals, he has spoken before the City Council and Lippman Commission on the dangerous impacts of these policies.

Jim is now running for Borough President to restore sanity and common sense to the radical progressive policies emanating from city and state government. As Borough President, he will continue his fight to stop the closing of Rikers and the building of a new jail in Kew Gardens; work to rebuild and rehabilitate the jails on Rikers Island; advocate for repealing the new bail laws for dangerous criminals; get the lead and mold out of NYCHA buildings; work with businesses like Amazon to bring high-paying jobs into Queens, and stop the city's practice of ignoring the will of the community and the Community Planning Boards.

Jim currently serves as an adjunct Professor of Law at St. John's University School of Law. He is married to his wife, Susan, a retired Catholic School teacher from Sunnyside, Queens. They have four children and four grandchildren. They have proudly called Long Island City, Upper Astoria and Astoria West home, and today they happily reside in Richmond Hill.

Dao Yin

Dao Yin has been a Queens Community Activist since 2005 when he started up small businesses both online and locally. Dao also has worked for two fortune global 500 companies as the corporate controller for more than 11 years now. He was the former Executive General Manager of a robotics company and he has worked for more than 15 companies in various industries in the United States, Japan and China through his career so far. His duties include budgeting, finance, accounting, human resources, legal and IT management.

Dao earned his 1st bachelor's degree in library and information science from East China Normal University in Shanghai, his 2nd bachelor's degree in political science from Waseda University in Tokyo and his Master of Science degree in business computer information systems from Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, CUNY in New York.

Dao has been the Secretary-General of The Shanghai Association of America, Inc. since 2005 and the Executive Vice President of Queens Residents and Voters Coalition since 2018.

During his time in the corporate world, Dao has partnered with corporate partners and small businesses to advance its workforce to develop by creating and implementing retraining opportunities, apprenticeships, and procurement opportunities.

His experience as a Director of Human Resources, Technology, Finance and Controller have enabled him to balance budgets while improving his workforces and still helping his firms make a profit.

Dao Yin is promoting a 10% City Rent Tax Credit for families making certain amounts of money each year, to help with the ever-increasing cost of living in the borough of Queens. Promoting first time homeowner programs can help alleviate some of our housing problems as well. Home ownership keeps families together and makes for better neighborhoods. Prefabricated residential apartment buildings would save the city billions of dollars and help keep the cost of construction down, allowing developers to still make a decent profit while keeping the rents at reasonable rates.

Without an adequate transportation system, millions of workers fail to arrive at work on time costing our businesses billions each year. Dao Yin proposes that the MTA improve the train and bus systems to get the borough's workers to their place of business to cut down on company losses and commuter travel time.

Our city can do better with traffic signals and road repairs and Dao plans to demand that better planning be implemented in those areas. More Express buses can be instituted to get commuters back and forth to their jobs and homes. Shopping would take less time out of people's busy schedules, allowing them to spend more time with their families or just relaxing.

Dao is skilled at implementing the kind of forward-thinking ideas that are on such short display today and would be a great asset as Queens Borough President.