Julie Quinn

Julie Ann Unangst Quinn (born October 26, 1966) is an attorney from Metairie, Louisiana. A Republican, she is a former member of the Louisiana State Senate, representing District 6, which previously included parts of Orleans (a portion of Uptown), Jefferson, St.Tammany, and Tangipahoa parishes.

Quinn was elected after winning a special election runoff held in July 2005 against fellow Republican Diane Winston of Covington, then a state representative. The position became available by the death of veteran Republican lawmaker John Hainkel.

Personal life

Quinn is the oldest of three children born to Bruce Edward Unangst (born ca. 1949), a native of Greenville in Mercer County in northwestern Pennsylvania, and the former Shirley Ann Lineman (born 1948).^[1] She has two brothers—attorney Bruce Unangst II, of Gonzales in Ascension Parish and Christopher Martin Unangst. Her father, the first president of the combined parish and municipal government in St. Tammany Parish,^[1] is a real estate agent and banker in Covington. Quinn’s mother also had political aspirations and unsuccessfully sought the District 76 seat in St. Tammany Parish in the Louisiana House of Representatives in a four-candidate all-Republican field^[1] in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 19, 1991.^[2] In the second round of balloting, the incumbent Edward C. Scogin of Slidell, was unseated for the position that Shirley nangst sought by Suzanne Mayfield Krieger.^[3]

Quinn graduated in 1989 from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge with a Bachelor of Arts degree in broadcast journalism. In 1992, she earned her Juris Doctor degree from Loyola University in New Orleans, where she graduated on Law Review and Moot Court and was twice named a teaching assistant in legal research and writing.^[1] In 1996, Quinn married businessman Francis Patrick Quinn, owner of the Decatur hotel chain. In 2001, Quinn ran for and won a special election to the Jefferson Parish School Board. From that berth she declared her support for fiscal responsibility^[1] and worked to establish the first magnet school in Jefferson Parish.

In order to run for the Louisiana State Senate in 2005, Quinn resigned from the Jefferson Parish School Board. She was elected and took the oath of office in August 2005, just three weeks before Hurricane Katrina.

Quinn was thereafter elected to a full term in the Senate seat in the primary held on October 20, 2007.^[4]

Julie Unangst Quinn is divorced from Francis Patrick Quinn. In 2012, Jefferson Parish President John Young announced his engagement to her. However, the two are no longer engaged. John Young.^[5]

Senatorial service

As a senator, she served on the Insurance Committee, a position through which she became an advocate for property insurance reform. She also worked to require insurance companies to pay the claims to homeowners in the wake of Katrina. After her first legislative session, she was named "Senator of the Year" by the Louisiana Childcare Association. Within 18 months, she was named Legislator of the Year by the Louisiana Orthopedic Association, the Louisiana Chiropractic Association, and the Louisiana Nurse Anesthetists. She has been twice named to the "Hall of Fame" of the conservative Louisiana Family Forum for a voting record 100 percent in line with the organization’s traditional values.^[6] Additionally, she supported Senate colleague Heulette Fontenot's Pet Evacuation Act of 2006 and in 2008 passed legislation protecting and including animals in a Domestic Abuse Protective Order. In 2008 she was named "Legislator of the Year by the United States Humane Society.

Quinn sponsored a bill requiring mandatory jail time for people who violate a restraining order at the request of the Louisiana Coalition for Domestic Abuse. The bill is now law. She also filed a bill banning text messaging while driving in Louisiana.

In 2008, then Senate President Joel Chaisson, a Democrat from Destrehan in St. Charles Parish, named her chair of the Judiciary A Committee. In that role, she managed a large amount of non-fiscal legislation relating to clerks of court, tort reform, courts, property law, successions, family law, state civil code, code of evidence, and children’s code. She also served on the Senate Committee on Local and Municipal Affairs.^[6] In 2009, she championed the cause of homeowners having problems with Chinese drywall.

In 2011, she chose not to run for re-election in order to focus on raising her two sons.^[7]

References