New Paltz resident Eve Walter, Village of New Paltz Planning Board chair and youth and women’s equity advocate, has announced her candidacy for Ulster County Legislator representing the core of New Paltz. County legislative district 20 is comprised of the three voting districts in the Village (1,4,9), as well as one voting district (8) in the Town of New Paltz.
Hector Rodriguez, the current Ulster County Legislature for District 20, announced recently that he would not seek re-election.
“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,” said Walter. “Many years ago when I was chair of the county’s youth advocacy board, I realized I could be more effective getting funding to youth programs in our county as a legislator rather than an advocate. Ever since then, I have been looking for opportunities to get more ‘on the ground’ experience to ensure I was prepared to run when the time came, and that time is now. I’m ready to make the commitment to serve my community in our county legislature.”
Walter is currently a Research Scientist at both the Institute for Family Health and the Benjamin Center for Public Policy Initiatives at SUNY New Paltz. Walter’s Ph.D. is in Epidemiology, and her research areas include violence against women, youth risk behaviors and income/racial disparities in health. She also created the first public opinion poll centered views on women (VOW Poll) implemented across New York State in 2017. Eve has served as an independent evaluator to many regional non-profits including: Family Services, Family of Woodstock, Ulster County Department of Health and Westchester Institute for Human Development.
Over the course of the past few decades, Walter has been civically engaged in multiple ways, demonstrating her commitment to public service. She is the former vice chair of the Ulster County Criminal Justice Council, former president of the Rosendale Theatre and was appointed as a commissioner on the New York State Women’s Suffrage Commission. Since November 2017, she has served on the Village of New Paltz Planning Board, where she is currently the chair.
Walter’s agenda for county government change includes: innovations to improve the public transportation system, increasing affordable housing and decreasing the cost of living, ensuring the county has its own hospital of excellence, collaborating with the local governments to reduce employee health insurance costs, redistributing sales and short-term rental tax to increase shares to towns and villages and implementing a more robust agenda to move the county toward net-zero carbon emissions.
Walter is the mother of Daisy and Quinn, stepmother of Reilly, Fiona and Kieran and wife of Craig Weinstein, the varsity soccer coach at New Paltz high school. Her top priority is to truly represent her community and she says she will be actively seeking out ways to hear from her neighbors over the course of this campaign in order to be fully responsive to constituents and understand concerns locally and across the county.
Join the family! 
