Bill Perkins (politician)
| Bill Perkins | |
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Bill Perkins speaking at Times Square in New York City, 2008.
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| Member of the New York City Council from the 9th District | |
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Assumed office March 1, 2017 |
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| Preceded by | Inez Dickens |
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In office January 1, 1998 – December 31, 2005 |
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| Preceded by | C. Virginia Fields |
| Succeeded by | Inez Dickens |
| Member of the New York State Senate from the 30th district |
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In office January 1, 2007 – February 28, 2017 |
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| Preceded by | David Paterson |
| Succeeded by | TBD |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | Brown University |
Bill Perkins is the Council member for the 9th District of the New York City Council. He is a Democrat. The district includes portions of Harlem in Manhattan. Perkins formerly represented the same seat from 1998 to 2006, and was a member of the New York State Senate from 2007 to 2017.
Perkins was born and raised in Harlem, New York, and attended Collegiate Preparatory School before receiving a scholarship to Brown University, where he graduated in 1972. In 1997, Perkins was first elected to the New York City Council, winning the seat easily after losing the Democratic nomination for the Council three times previously. On the Council, Perkins served as Deputy Majority Leader, and championed the lead paint laws that required New York City residences to be tested for hazardous conditions.
Term-limited from the Council in 2005, Perkins opted to seek election to the New York State Senate in 2006, where he won. He was re-elected five times, and served a total of ten years, before resigning to retake his seat on the New York City Council. Perkins also ran briefly to succeed Charles Rangel in the United States House of Representatives in 2016, but later dropped out.
Perkins was one of the few New York lawmakers who endorsed Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic Primary over Hillary Clinton.
In 2016, Councilmember Inez Dickens, who had succeeded Perkins on the Council, announced that she would forgo her last year on the Council before term-limits to run for a vacant seat in the New York State Assembly. That seat had become open because long-time Assemblymember Keith Wright opted to also run for Congress, eventually losing the primary to Adriano Espaillat. While he could have run for his Assembly seat again, he opted not to.
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