Research scientist at SUNY New Paltz seeks Ulster County Legislature seat
New Paltz resident Eve Walter, a SUNY research scientist and chairwoman of the Village Planning Board, has announced her candidacy for the Ulster County Legislature’s District 20 seat, which will be vacated by Democratic Legislator Hector Rodriguez at the end of the year.
“I have wanted to serve in our county Legislature for well over a decade, and now the time is right for me to seek this office,” Walter said in a press release. She is seeking the Democratic nomination.
Walter, 50, of 5 Taylor St., is a research scientist at the Institute for Family Health and the Benjamin Center for Public Policy Initiatives at SUNY New Paltz. She is married to Craig Weinstein, the varsity soccer coach at New Paltz High School. She has two children and three stepchildren.
Walter has a doctorate in epidemiology; her research areas include violence against women, youth risk behaviors, and income/ racial disparities in health. She created the first Views on Women public opinion poll in New York state in 2017.
She is the former vice chair of the Ulster County Criminal Justice Council, former president of the Rosendale Theatre, and was appointed as a member of the New York State Women’s Suffrage Commission. She has served on the New Paltz Village Planning Board since November 2017.
Her agenda for county government includes improving the county’s public transportation system, increasing affordable housing and reducing the cost of living, ensuring the county has its own “hospital of excellence,” collaborating with our local governments to reduce employee health insurance costs, redistributing sales and short term rental taxes to increase shares to towns and villages, and implementing a more robust agenda to move the county toward net zero carbon emissions.
The legislative district includes voting districts 1,4, and 9 in the village of New Paltz and voting district 8 in the town of New Paltz.