Catherine Parker walked away from her 18-year career in local politics in December with few regrets.
Parker had tried to make it to Washington, D.C., challenging Jamaal Bowman in 2022 in a Democratic primary in the 16th District, but she came up short.
She entered that race, she said, because she felt someone had to step up to take on Bowman, a “Squad” member who had become increasingly outspoken — and absent from key areas of the Westchester-centric district.
“I just felt that our district was really suffering under Congressman Bowman,” she said. “He was just not a good elected official.
“I felt that if nobody was going to do it, then I would do it. So, I did it for the right reasons.”
The saying goes in politics, you either win or you learn. Parker said she learned “a lot” from that experience.
She also says she doesn’t regret deciding not to challenge him again in 2024, when George Latimer took on Bowman and toppled him in a heated primary.
Parker, who officially stepped down on Jan. 1, has not determined her next steps, but looks back fondly on her years of public service.
She spent six years on the Rye City Council followed by 12 years on the Westchester County Board of Legislators. The 60-year-old, fourth-generation Westchesterite said that serving as an elected official “has been a tremendous honor,” but she is a firm believer in term limits, which ran out for her after serving six two-year terms.
“This works much better when people see this as a temporary role,” she said.
Parker said she believes this marks the end of her career in elected office, while leaving herself a bit of wiggle room when asked if she would run again: “Of course, you never say never.”
Though she was a political lame duck, Parker continued to represent the 7th District last month by engaging in the Board of Legislators’ deliberations on the county budget.
A one-time independent who voted for Ronald Reagan in her youth, Parker in 1996 opened Parker’s, a travel store on Purchase Street that sold luggage, travel books, and apparel, and moved to Blind Brook Lodge in Rye in 1998. She became deeply involved in local civic life through leadership on the Rye Chamber of Commerce, the League of Women Voters, and the Rye Arts Center, and was elected to the Rye City Council in 2007.
After six years on the council, Parker won a seat on the County Board of Legislators in 2013. Parker said she experienced a challenging transition when she went from being a part-time volunteer city council member to a full-time salaried county legislator representing people in several municipalities.
Parker loved the new job, she said, but found it increasingly difficult to balance her greater responsibilities with managing a brick-and-mortar store, especially as competition grew tougher in the digital shopping age. Parker closed the business in 2018.
She is married to David Walker, a massage therapist, and they have two children: Julia and Aiden.
Working with colleagues to develop laws and serving constituents are both responsibilities Parker said she takes seriously.
“I have the right DNA for public service and not everybody has it,” she said. “I like people. I am empathetic.” Those qualities, she said, have fueled her to fight for local people in need such as a family whose boiler broke down in the depth of winter and a veteran with PTSD.
She took her place on the board hoping to create a legacy linked to environmental issues. Twelve years later she expressed pride in authoring legislation appointing a county energy director, creating an Office of Sustainability, and working for years to help communities fight flooding.
Beyond the environment, Parker has been involved on many fronts from housing to digital equity. She thinks of herself not as a politician, but as a public servant who doesn’t always agree with constituents, but is respected for “being straight with them.”
“I’ve always tried to be pragmatic,” she said. “Sometimes that meant I was the lone person on the City Council who argued we should keep taxes flat and there are other times when I’ve advocated that we should keep a program whole … and I seemed more progressive.”
Of her regrets, Parker said she wishes she had been successful in persuading colleagues to join her in voting against the county’s ill-fated 2016 contract with Standard Amusements to manage Playland.
Looking at the national political scene, Parker expressed despair.
“I don’t know how we can get back to a place where people go to Washington willing to listen to the other side and working together to get things done,” she said.
Fortunately, Westchester has not descended to that level of combativeness, according to Parker.
“It gives me comfort that here at home people are more reasonable,” she said. “It’s reflected in our local governments. It is represented in White Plains.”
Parker has been succeeded on the board by Democrat Anant Nambiar. She said she would be glad to provide him with her “two cents” if he wants them, but that she is not pushing advice on him, believing that it is his role to shape his time in office.
For anyone going into this line of work, Parker did offer up this general counsel: “Being a legislator is not that glamorous, it is not that sexy,” Parker said. “You are really there to do the work of the people.”
