CityHallNews.com

IN THE TRENCHES

Former Maloney Policy Director Joins Nadler’s Office

Drinkwater will work on issues below 14th Street, but vacation at medical mission in West Indies

By Courtney McLeod

One of the newest additions to Rep. Jerrold Nadler’s (D-Manhattan) office is Erin Drinkwater, the community representative for the area in Nadler’s district below 14th Street.

Drinkwater, 27, has long been interested in advancing social issues. She got her start in New York City politics working as Sean Patrick Maloney’s policy director on his campaign for the Democratic nomination for attorney general last year.

She met Maloney at a dinner where Maloney was being endorsed.

“I liked what he had to say, so I went up and talked to him,” she said. Without any professional plans for the summer, Drinkwater said she would be interested in any opportunities with his campaign.

The job with Maloney prepared her for her current role with Nadler, she said.

“It prepared me in terms of gaining an initial understanding of the New York landscape in politics. There are differences with it being a statewide race, but it allowed me to become familiar with key players in New York politics,” she said.

After Maloney’s campaign ended in 2007, Drinkwater was looking for something to do in an off political year. A dean from The New School’s Milano School for Management and Urban Policy, where she is finishing a master’s, forwarded her a job posting from Nadler’s office.

“It seemed like the perfect combination of my interests and also policy,” she recalled, so she submitted her résumé. She started in December.

As the community representative, Drinkwater spends lots of time going to community meetings and ribbon-cutting ceremonies with Nadler. In addition, Drinkwater, who calls herself “queer,” handles any LGBT issues that come up in Nadler’s district.

Recently, she had become involved in the Empire State Pride Agenda, and aims to organize student groups around LGBT issues that are broader than the gay marriage question. That issue, she believes, “doesn’t resonate with young people.”

Now, she calls “the southeast corner of Prospect Park” on Parkside Avenue in Brooklyn home, having moved to New York City originally for graduate school. Before that, she taught environmental education in northern New Jersey. She received her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Growing up with Republican parents made for some interesting conversations about her being queer and being liberal, she recalled. Importantly, it helped her to defend why she believes what she does.

Since the fall of 2002, Drinkwater has been volunteering with a medical mission that provides services in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. She worked in a clinic, taught English and, back when her Spanish was better, translated for doctors.

One of the highlights was seeing a baby again that she once thought would die.

“It makes you smile and know that something’s going right, at least for that minute,” she said.

Her trips have ranged from 10 days to a month, and she hopes to go at least once this year—right now she is saving up vacation days.

As for the future, Drinkwater says she is content to stay where she is for now and continue making connections. As for a political office of her own, she says she does not have any intention of running—at least, not yet. “I like the behind the scenes thing,” she said. “But at the same time, who knows what will happen 10 years from now?”