[1][2][3] Gary's political career began with working for the Massachusetts House Ways and Means committee from 1994 to 1997.

[3] He received online attention in 2019 for his habit of picking up trash every day while walking to the office.

Since Gary became Mayor and Chair of the School Committee, the educators’ union became one of the few in the Commonwealth to have to go on strike in the past two decades.

Gary Christenson served as a city councillor of Ward 1 in Malden for seven years after taking office in January 2004.

In 2006, he was elevated to Chairman of the Finance Committee and in 2008 he was voted unanimously by his peers as City Council President.