Shelter Island GOP chair: With all ballots counted, Amber Brach-Williams wins town supervisor seat
With all ballots counted, Republican Amber Brach-Williams has won the tight race for Shelter Island town supervisor, according to the local GOP chairman. Credit: James Escher
Amber Brach-Williams has won the race for Shelter Island supervisor, according to the local Republican chairman, making her the second woman in history elected to that top town position.
The GOP councilwoman defeated Democrat Arnott Gordon Gooding in a race that was separated by just 44 votes on Election Day.
Town GOP chairman Gary Blados said Brach-Williams, 61, got 51% of the vote, according to numbers the Suffolk County Board of Elections provided to him.
He said Brach-Williams refrained from declaring victory until the county elections board counted additional absentee and affidavit ballots.
Gooding said in an interview this week he realized he wouldn't prevail and offered advice for community members:
"Everyone has to work hard to pull the island together," he said. “We know where the problems are, let’s go out and solve them."
Brach-Williams was unavailable for an interview Friday.
Voters first elected her to the town board in 2016. She will succeed Democrat Gerard Siller, who lost a June primary to Gooding.
Siller served four terms as supervisor. He was in the role from 1998 to 2001 before voters elected him again in 2019 and in 2021.
In the town council race, voters elected Democrats Albert Dickson and Benjamin Dyett to fill two seats that retiring Democratic council members are vacating. Dickson and Dyett defeated Republican candidates Thomas Cronin and Arthur Williams.
Brach-Williams’ victory leaves an open seat on the town board — a legislative body that now has two Democrats and two Republicans. The future of that open council seat wasn't immediately clear Friday.
Shelter Island first elected a woman, Marian Keyser, as supervisor in 1979, according to Newsday's archives.
Brach-Williams will join two other female supervisors on the East End after voters in East Hampton elected Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and Southampton voters elected Maria Moore.
Joe Werkmeister covers the towns of Southampton, East Hampton and Shelter Island. He is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University and previously worked as the editor of two North Fork community newspapers.
