Brad Kendall wins fifth term as clerk
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. >> Longtime Dutchess County Clerk Brad Kendall won another term in office Tuesday by defeating former Fishkill Town Board member Kenya Gadsden, according to unofficial results from the Dutchess County Board of Elections.
Gadsden, a Democrat, lost to Kendall by a vote of 36,143 to 31,294, according to the Board of Elections.
Kendall, who ran under the Republican and Conservative banners, has been Dutchess County clerk since 2006. He was elected in 2007 and reelected in 2011, 2015, and 2019.
He is a graduate of Williams College and is a national merit scholar.
During the past 17 years, Kendall and his staff have processed more than 5 million transactions, while implementing an electronic filing process that converts paper records to a digital format, his website said.
Together with the Dutchess County historian, Kendall and his staff have digitized and posted online over 52,000 pages of material comprising the county’s earliest records to the Ancient Documents Portal, the website said.
Gadsden, who has worked with an organization that supports people with intellectual disabilities, ran under the Democratic and Working Families banners.
After receiving an associate’s degree from Iona College and a bachelor’s degree in behavioral science from Concordia University, Gadsden went to work for Lifespire for three decades supporting people with intellectual disabilities.
She began as a direct support worker, then rose in the organization to become the residential program coordinator. She served on the Beacon City School Board from 2014 until 2017, where she was elected as vice president for two years. Additionally, she served on the Fishkill Town Board from 2020 to 2021, where she pushed for increased transportation services for senior citizens and WiFi for the town recreation center.