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"It was clear in that moment that we would get through this. At the end of the day, Jimmy Oddo and
Chris Quinn are always going to be great friends and great allies in most of our battles," said Ms.
Quinn, who keeps a photo of that CSI event on her BlackBerry.
The unlikely friendship has helped the Island as well. It's no coincidence the Speaker has been
generous with discretionary funds for the borough's three Council members -- money that has been
used to keep dozens of non-profits in the borough afloat; or that Oddo has passed more bills in the
Council than any Republican before him -- bills which would have never made it to a vote unless they
were supported by the Speaker; that Ms. Quinn, prompted by conversations with Oddo, pushed for tax
breaks and legislation to help small businesses; or that Quinn's office released the only city-funded
report to acknowledge the borough faces a significant shortage of primary care services.
And their relationship could have even more far-reaching impact for the Island's future, as Ms. Quinn
positions herself for a run at mayor and Oddo for borough president. But political strategy and
convenience are not the ties that bind these two. They seem to genuinely love and respect each other.
"We have a lot of similarities in our personalities. We are both micro-managers to a fault, we both
tend to demonstrate obsessive/compulsive traits, we both are workaholics and we both fell in love
with women named Kim," Oddo said.
Ms. Quinn added "loud, pushy and excessive" to that list of common traits. "But in a good way," she
quipped.
MEANT TO BE
As far as they are both concerned, the relationship was "meant to be." The two met in 1992 as Council
staffers (Oddo worked for former Mid-Island Councilman John Fusco and Ms. Quinn for Tom Duane,
now a state senator from Manhattan).
They discovered they were both friends with Staten Island Assistant District Attorney Mark Palladino,
who went to Monsignor Farrell High School with Oddo, then to Trinity College in Connecticut with
Ms. Quinn. Then they were both elected to the Council on the same day, in a special election on Feb.
16, 1999.
They worked together on the Council's Health Committee, which Ms. Quinn eventually chaired.
Tackling issues such as nurses in non-public schools brought her to Staten Island.
Ms. Quinn admits now she was intimidated the first time she came to the borough as an elected
official. She feared that a liberal lesbian from Manhattan would never be accepted in a place that has a
reputation not just for being conservative, but intolerant. Her warm reception convinced her
otherwise.
"For me, to assume that the conservative party members or Republican party members are not going
to like me or my family, it's just not true," Ms. Quinn said.
GIVES ODDO CREDIT
She credits Oddo for helping her get over what she called her "internalized homophobia" and opening
up her political horizons. She now counts Borough President James Molinaro, a Conservative, and
GOP state Sen. Andrew Lanza among her friends.
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