Annette M. Quijano (, born July 4, 1962) is an American Democratic Party politician, who has represented the 20th Legislative District in the

New Jersey General Assembly The New Jersey General Assembly is the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature. Since the election of 1967 (1968 session), the Assembly has consisted of 80 members. Two members are elected from each of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts f ...

since September 25, 2008.

Early life

Quijano is a native of New Jersey, the daughter of Puerto Rican parents. She is a resident of Elizabeth. Quijano graduated from

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

with a B.S. in Management and earned her

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from

Rutgers School of Law–Newark Rutgers Law School is the law school of Rutgers University, with classrooms in Newark and Camden, New Jersey. It is the largest public law school and the 10th largest law school, overall, in the United States. Each class in the three-year J.D. pr ...

in 1991. She served clerkships at

New Jersey Superior Court The Superior Court is the state court in the U.S. state of New Jersey, with statewide trial and appellate jurisdiction. The New Jersey Constitution of 1947 establishes the power of the New Jersey courts: under Article Six of the State Consti ...

in Newark, and in Trenton at both the Office of the Governor's Counsel and the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate in Trenton. She has bar admissions in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania. She is currently a municipal prosecutor for the City of Elizabeth. She has worked as a Compliance Manager for Prudential/

Aetna Aetna Inc. ( ) is an American managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans, ...

U.S. Healthcare and as an attorney in civil practice. She served as Chief of Staff to

State Senator A state senator is a member of a State legislature (United States), state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature. History There are typically fewer state senators than there ...

Raymond Lesniak from 1992 to 1994, Assistant Counsel to Union County, Clerk to the Union County

Board of Chosen Freeholders In New Jersey, a Board of County Commissioners (until 2020 named the Board of Chosen Freeholders) is the elected county-wide government board in each of the state's 21 counties. In the five counties that have an elected county executive, the ...

and as the Assistant Counsel to Governors

Jim McGreevey James Edward McGreevey (born August 6, 1957) is an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as the 52nd governor of New Jersey from 2002 until his resignation in 2004 amidst a sex scandal. McGreevey served in the New Jersey Genera ...

, Richard Codey and

Jon Corzine Jon Stevens Corzine ( ; born January 1, 1947) is an American financial executive and retired politician who served as a United States Senator from New Jersey from 2001 to 2006, and the 54th governor of New Jersey from 2006 to 2010. Corzine ran f ...

.Assemblywoman-Select Annette Quijano
Community First. Accessed September 12, 2008. Quijano has served on the United Way Hispanic Advisory Council of Union County, the Governor's Working Group for Hispanic Affairs, a Legal Services committee in Elizabeth, and as a Commissioner for New Jersey's Congressional Redistricting efforts. She is the recipient of the Excellence in State Government Leadership and the Women of Excellence in Government awards and mentors young adults to consider law and graduate school in her free time.

New Jersey Assembly

Quijano is the first woman and first minority to represent the 20th District. Quijano was selected by a convention of Union County Democrats over Patricia Perkins-Auguste by a vote of 87–82 to replace the vacant seat of Neil Cohen who resigned. Cohen resigned after staffers for then Assemblyman Joseph Cryan and then Senator Raymond Lesniak found

child pornography Child pornography (also abbreviated as CP, also called child porn or kiddie porn, and child sexual abuse material, known by the acronym CSAM (underscoring that children can not be deemed willing participants under law)), is Eroticism, erotic ma ...

on Cohen's computer. She was sworn in on September 25, 2008. She has been serving as General Assembly Deputy Majority Leader and Chairwoman of the Assembly Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee. This is in addition to serving as a member of the Labor Committee. In June 2017, Quijano introduced a bill to designate ''

Streptomyces griseus ''Streptomyces griseus'' is a species of bacteria in the genus '' Streptomyces'' commonly found in soil. A few strains have been also reported from deep-sea sediments. It is a Gram-positive bacterium with high GC content. Along with most other ...

'' as New Jersey's State Microbe, to be added to the state's other state symbols. ''S. griseus'' was chosen for this honor because it is a New Jersey native that made unique contributions to healthcare and scientific research worldwide. A strain of ''S. griseus'' that produced the antibiotic

streptomycin Streptomycin is an antibiotic medication used to treat a number of bacterial infections, including tuberculosis, Mycobacterium avium complex, ''Mycobacterium avium'' complex, endocarditis, brucellosis, Burkholderia infection, ''Burkholderia'' i ...

was discovered in New Jersey in 1916 and developed into an antibiotic by a

team by Albert Schatz and

Selman Waksman Selman Abraham Waksman (July 22, 1888 – August 16, 1973) was a Russian-born American inventor, biochemist and microbiologist, whose research into the decomposition of organisms that live in soil enabled the discovery of streptomycin and severa ...

in 1943. A companion bill was introduced in the Senate in May 2017 by Samuel D. Thompson. In January 2025, Quijano was elected as speaker pro tempore, replacing Benjie Wimberly who was appointed to the State Senate.

Committees

Committee assignments for the 2024—2025 Legislative Session are:Assemblywoman Annette Quijano (D)

New Jersey Legislature The New Jersey Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, as defined by the New Jersey Constitution of 1947, the Legislature consists of two houses: the General Assembly and ...

. Accessed January 23, 2024. *Consumer Affairs (as vice-chair) *Housing *Labor

District 20

Each of the 40 districts in the New Jersey Legislature has one representative in the

New Jersey Senate The New Jersey Senate is the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature by the Constitution of 1844, replacing the Legislative Council. There are 40 legislative districts, representing districts with an average population of 232,225 (2020 figure ...

and two members in the

. The representatives from the 20th District for the 2024—2025 Legislative Session are:Legislative Roster for District 20

. Accessed January 23, 2024. * Senator Joseph Cryan (D) * Assemblyman Reginald Atkins (D) * Assemblywoman Annette Quijano (D)

Electoral history

New Jersey Assembly

References

External links

Assemblywoman Quijano's legislative web page

*''New Jersey Legislature financial disclosure forms''
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Quijano, Annette 1962 births 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century members of the New Jersey Legislature American women lawyers American politicians of Puerto Rican descent Democratic Party members of the New Jersey General Assembly Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in New Jersey Hispanic and Latino American women in politics Living people Lawyers from Union County, New Jersey Politicians from Elizabeth, New Jersey Puerto Rican people in New Jersey politics Rutgers School of Law–Newark alumni Women state legislators in New Jersey