Julie Killian

Julie Killian

Republican

BACKGROUND: Killian, 58, found her way in politics after starting in other directions. She was born in Mount Vernon and was raised there and in Connecticut. She went to the University of Notre Dame to earn a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and worked at a plastics plant. She then earned a Master’s in Business Administration from New York University and then spent more than a decade working as a trader on Wall Street. She and her husband, Gary, settled in Rye and had five children. She became involved in a number of local nonprofits and civic groups, including anti-substance abuse entities, and was appointed to a vacant city council seat in 2012, a post she held for six years. She twice ran unsuccessfully for the State Senate: in 2016 and in a special election in April to fill a vacancy.

ISSUES: Like her running mate, Marc Molinaro, Killian calls for reducing property taxes, improving infrastructure (mass transit and broadband development) and cleaning up Albany. More specifically, she has called for the state to end the practice of handing out grants to private entities, saying the state should not be “picking winners and losers,” but instead roll that savings into reducing tax rates broadly. She says too many of the state’s economic development programs have been linked to political donors. She supports a state takeover of all Medicaid costs from the counties. She has criticized the Cuomo administration’s promise to extend broadband capability as “not even close” to becoming reality. She supports a cap on state spending.