Long-time New Paltz resident Eve Walter has announced her candidacy for the Ulster County Legislature.
Dr. Walter is the Village of New Paltz Planning Chair and is an advocate for Youth and Women’s Equity. Walter is also the Director of Research and Evaluation at the SUNY New Paltz Benjamin Center for Public Policy Initiatives.
Walter has wanted to run for County legislator for almost two decades.
“I am a part of community based organizations in the county and I understand the needs [of the community] in that perspective,” Walter said. “I would be the voice of New Paltz and focus on problems of affordable housing, tax and pay-to-play [in county politics].”
As an advocate, Walter feels that “help is always pushed forward, but [she] feels as though [she] can be more of a change maker in the legislature and can see forward changes.” As a representative of the county, “I feel like I can help more than I can without the legislature,” Walter said.
New Paltz is home to varying levels of socioeconomic status and is very diverse in politics. This is “often missed when you live in one place,” Walter said. “Many values and ideals in New Paltz need to be represented.”
Past elected Ulster County Legislator Gerald Benjamin, now director of the SUNY New Paltz Benjamin Center explains Walter’s time at the Benjamin Center as helping her be better equipped to represent New Paltz in the county legislature.
“The Benjamin Center does policy research focused on the Hudson Valley. Dr. Walters has been our lead researcher in a number of key policy areas of importance to county government: health care, criminal justice, drugs and youth, sexual harassment,” Benjamin said. “She regularly collaborates on a range of projects led by others on our staff. She thus brings a wealth of information, leadership capacity and analytic capability to potential service in elective office.”
“As a colleague and a friend I can say that Eve Walters is deeply rooted in our county and promises to bring demonstrated leadership ability, substantive knowledge of the issues and deep experience as a volunteer and activist to county government,” Benjamin said.
On Nov. 5 Ulster County elections will be taking place and Walters explained that “[she] will continue to try if elected, to really know what people talk about in the village so [she] can try to represent them well.”
