EARLY RESULTS show Neysa Fligor leading the race for Santa Clara County assessor.
As of 8:45 p.m. on Election Day, Fligor is ahead with nearly 40% of the vote, or 112,313 votes. In second place is Rishi Kumar with just under 24% of the vote or 67,828 votes. Yan Zhao is coming in third with 20.7% or 58,742 votes. Coming in fourth is Bryan Do with 15.5% or 44,133 votes.
Santa Clara County voters are choosing between four candidates for the next county assessor, in a race sparked over the summer by the retirement of Larry Stone, who held the role for 30 years.
The contenders include Saratoga Councilmember Yan Zhao, Los Altos Vice Mayor Neysa Fligor, who works in the assessor’s office, tech executive and former Saratoga Councilmember Rishi Kumar and Bryan Do, a board member for the East Side Union High School District.
Whoever emerges victorious from the Nov. 4 election — or the possible runoff on Dec. 30 — will take the helm of an office responsible for assessing the property values that make up the county’s more than $700 billion real estate and business property rolls. Such assessments have profound implications for property owners as well as the county’s prospects for gathering property tax revenue.
The winner will get to finish out Stone’s term, which concludes at the end of 2026, but will then need to run again to secure a full four-year term.
The race has centered on questions of how to modernize operations at the assessor’s office, and reduce the amount of time it takes to carry out assessments and resolve appeals.
Fligor said she was “excited and relieved” to see the election returns that seem next to certain to secure her a commanding position in a December runoff election.
“As the next assessor I will continue to protect taxpayers’ dollars, I will save taxpayers’ money. I will improve the process, including the appeal process,” she told San José Spotlight.
Fligor, who secured Stone’s endorsement, is running on her experience working in the assessor’s office, including her current role as assistant assessor. In that role, she has managed the office’s 250-member staff as they carry out day-to-day operations, and has also helped to lead ongoing efforts to overhaul the agency’s aging technology systems, according to her campaign website.
Her campaign has centered on her pitch that her long experience in the office will preserve a steady hand that will help to shepherd an ongoing tech modernization effort. She also pledged to boost community outreach to secure feedback on the office’s operations.
“That message will not change,” she said. “But we will look to expand our voter outreach.”
Kumar: ‘Thrilled’ to advance to runoff
Kumar has run as a tax hawk, highlighting his time in local government working to block various tax hikes and fee increases. He has raised eyebrows with his campaign’s signature initiative, a plan to sponsor a state ballot measure to completely eliminate property taxes for many homeowners aged 60 and over. The other candidates in the race have pushed back against the strategy, noting that the county assessor has no direct authority to set tax policy.
“We’re thrilled to have made the Dec. 30 runoff while spending a tiny fraction of what our opponent did,” Kumar told San José Spotlight. “I stand by my pledge to deliver property tax exemption for those aged 60 and over with a statewide ballot initiative that’s already forging ahead.”
Zhao, who is trailing in third place, is still holding onto hope that her two years of campaign work would pay off.
“I think the second showing is going to do better because from the phone calls, from the knocking on doors, I feel very positive,” she told San José Spotlight.
Zhao, who announced her candidacy in 2023 and then went on to earn her appraiser’s license, argues the assessor’s office is in dire need of new leadership. Over the course of the campaign, she has attempted to cast Fligor as a hand-picked “insider,” who would be ill-equipped to carry out needed reforms.
Zhao spent decades in Silicon Valley’s semiconductor industry. Since joining the race, she has racked up a series of endorsements, including county Supervisor Otto Lee and state Sen. Dave Cortese.
As for Do, over the course of the campaign he has been leaning on his professional background working in the tech sector as a project manager. He has said that he would like to bring more efficiency and transparency to the office through a number of tech-backed initiatives, including a web tool to track how long it takes staff to complete the assessment roll and carry out appeals.
Contact Keith Menconi at keith@sanjosespotlight.com or @KeithMenconi on X.
This story originally appeared in San Jose Spotlight.