Real estate industry bets on Christine Quinn 

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From left: Mary Ann Tighe, CEO at CB Richard Ellis, and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn

Earlier this year, Mary Ann Tighe, a CEO at CB Richard Ellis and chair of the Real Estate Board of New York, held a fundraising event for City Council Speaker Christine Quinn at her home across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Capital reported. About 50 real estate executives paid $1,000 to rub shoulders with the establishment’s choice for 2013 mayor.

Despite her earlier career as a “radical” on the far left of city politics, first as a campaign manager for Council member Tom Duane and then later a Council member herself, Quinn has emerged as the real estate community’s favorite for mayor, besting Comptroller John Liu and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, co-sponsors of a rent control bill that has plagued the industry. Quinn, on the other hand, is a fan of rent regulation but seems more flexible on other issues, such as development.

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“I think the audience walked away feeling like she was impressive, that she’s somebody the community could work with to the betterment of the city,” Tighe said of Quinn, an almost unwavering supporter of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who cannot run again. “And that doesn’t mean we were in agreement with everything she said. But we liked her clarity and we liked her candor.”

Quinn’s most recent campaign filings show her outraising her key rivals for mayor, with $4.5 million on hand compared to about $2.7 million for Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, $1.5 million for Liu and $1 million for de Blasio, Capital said. Over the course of her position as Speaker, she has garnered increasing support from the business community, amounting to about 20 percent of her private contributions in 2007, up from only 3 percent in 2003. [Capital]