Flatbush State Sen. Kevin Parker, a staunch Democrat, may be one of the party aficionados leading the charge to reign in the Senate’s breakway Independent Democratic Conference, but that hasn’t kept his cousin from breaking ranks and turning Republican.
That after Christine Parker, recently threw her hat in the ring as the GOP candidate running for the 35th City Council District covering Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights and Crown Heights.
Parker, a single mother of two, lover of the outdoors, St.John’s University graduate and Deputy Director of the Cultural Museum of African Art, will likely take on the winner of the Democratic Primary battle between incumbent City Council Member Laurie Combo and Ede Fox.
Parker refused comment on her being related to Kevin Parker, but said she decided to switch party affiliations because she believes she can best serve her community from the Republican Party. And unlike her cousin, a huge supporter of public schools and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) union, Cristine Parker’s major platform appears to be more choices for where parents send their kids to school.
“When I was putting my children through school, as a single mother, I made sure they went to parochial and private schools. Sadly, not all parents have the same opportunities that I was able to give my children, so I want to make sure the children and youth of my district and all of NYC have the ability to attend fine private schools, enriching public programs, and schools with adequate academic tracking programs. The youth in our community has to have the leadership and educational skills that will get them through life,” said Parker.
Parker sees the community’s and the city’s educational services as lacking crucial necessities. She believes the lack of top-tier educational opportunity schools like Brooklyn Tech, enriching programming, and vocational education, are putting the districts youth at a disadvantage.
According to Parker, the children of the 35th district who are in foster care “are not getting benchmarked, or being given proper guidance. Once these kids come out of foster care, they need to be ready to conquer the world, find a job, and start a family, and right now the system is not ensuring that this happens”.
Parker went onto the issue of safety, proclaiming that “although education is my primary passion and the corner-stone of my campaign, I strongly believe in strengthening our communities safety.”
Parker says that in order to ensure the 35th district has the safety and security it currently lacks there needs to be a stronger partnership between the local Police Precincts and community members. “We have to determine the safety issues in each electoral district and work together with the police to resolve them,” she said.
Lastly, Parker noted that affordable housing was the most pressing issue to the residents of the 35th district. “Not even 50% of the houses in my district are affordable for my future constituents. The median income in my district is much lower than that in all of New York City, yet the city calculates the pricing of affordable housing units based of the median income of the entire New York City area. We must stop this, and fight for the born right of every person in NYC to have a place to call home, especially when they work very hard towards achieving a residence”.
While Christine Parker faces an uphill battle for the city council seat in the hugely Democratic District, she has already won the endorsement of the Brooklyn GOP Executive Committee including Chairman Ted Ghorra, and Vice-Chairman Brian Doherty.
“The Brooklyn Republican Party, along with its Executive Committee, is thrilled to endorse this highly qualified women and candidate, Christine Parker,” said Ghorra. “Simply stated, a change on so many fronts is needed, and we look forward to supporting Christine Parker in what is sure to be an exciting race. We all know things must change and we need to look in a different direction than what has led us here in the first place.”
