John Liu - Political Career

Political Career

Elected to the New York City Council in 2001 to represent District 20, the northeast Queens area (Flushing, Queensboro Hill, Mitchell Linden, Murray Hill, Holly, Kissena Park, Harding Heights, Auburndale, part of Whitestone), Liu is the first Asian American to be elected to the City Council. He served as the Chairperson of the New York City Council's Transportation Committee and also served on the committees on Education, Consumer Affairs, Health, Land Use, Contracts, Oversight & Investigations and Lower Manhattan Redevelopment.

In March 2009, Liu announced that he was running for the post of New York City Comptroller. Liu has raised $3 million for his political run, more than his competitors.

Beginning in May, Liu picked up several endorsements. The Village Independent Democrats, The Queens County Democratic organization, the local Americans for Democratic Action chapter and the Working Families Party, 1199 SEIU union local and the Uniformed Firefighters Association endorsed him. On September 1, the United Federation of Teachers endorsed Liu.

In the September 15 Democratic primary, Liu was the front-runner, ending up with 133,986 votes, or 38 percent of the vote. Because he did not manage to reach 40 of the vote, a run-off election was required between Liu and runner-up David Yassky, who received 30 percent of the vote in the primary. Two weeks later, Liu won the run-off by taking 55.6% of the vote against Yassky.

In the general election on November 3, Liu won the comptroller election with 76% of the vote, a total of 696,330 votes. Republican candidate Joseph Mendola came in second with 19.3% of the vote. After he was officially sworn in to the post, Liu became the first Asian American to hold a city-wide political office in New York City.