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Christine Quinn Courts Women Power Brokers in DC

By Jill Colvin | January 22, 2013 2:36pm

WASHINGTON, D.C. — City Council Speaker Christine Quinn spent inauguration weekend in Washington, D.C. courting female elected officials and business leaders as she ramps up her expected run for mayor.

Quinn stopped by a women's "Power Hour" on Sunday hosted by Upper East Side Rep. Carolyn Maloney in the red brick row house she shares with fellow female congresswomen. Maloney, who threw the bash to celebrate the record number of women serving in Congress this year, introduced Quinn to the group to enthusiastic applause.

"We may have from New York a woman president coming up in 2016 and we may have a woman mayor from the City of New York," she said, referring to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Quinn.

Quinn schmoozed with a who's-who of power players. There was Dottie Herman, president and CEO of Prudential Douglas Elliman, the city's largest real estate group, who was overheard reminding Quinn about her work for Clinton's presidential campaign, as well as Teri O'Neill, the president of the National Organization of Women, activist Lily Ledbetter, the namesake of the recent equal pay act, and newly-elected Queens Rep. Grace Meng.

Later in the evening, Maloney plugged Quinn's candidacy.

"I think she'd make a terrific mayor," Maloney told DNAinfo.com New York.

Quinn also heaped praise on Maloney, crediting the former City Councilwoman for breaking down barriers for women. She noted Maloney's status as the first City Councilwoman to have had a child while in office.

"When there's a first woman mayor of New York City, make no doubt about it, it's in large part because of this woman," Quinn told the group. "Carolyn, thank you for changing the world for women and LGBT and so many other people."

Quinn had spent the morning at a sold-out brunch for EMILY's list, an organization dedicated to electing pro-choice Democratic women, which endorsed her earlier his month.

"It was so crowded it took your breath away, you know, that there were so many woman and men there and now so many women in Congress and in the Senate," she said of the event.

Quinn, who is looking to become the first female mayor of New York, is currently polling evenly among woman and men.

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio was also in town for the inauguration and tweeted a photo of his family on the Mall Monday.

Perfect way to celebrate Day: inaugurating with @ and Dante!" he wrote.