WITH NEARLY ALL THE VOTES COUNTED in the race for Santa Clara County assessor, the contest is headed for a December runoff between Los Altos Vice Mayor Neysa Fligor and former Saratoga Councilmember Rishi Kumar.
As of Friday afternoon, Fligor has a commanding lead with 37.7% of the vote from the Nov. 4 election compared to Kumar’s 24.0%. However, because Fligor did not surpass the 50% vote threshold needed to win the contest outright, the pair will compete in a Dec. 30 runoff election.
Saratoga Councilmember Yan Zhao and East Side Union High School District Board Member Bryan Do placed third and fourth, respectively.
The two runoff candidates agree big changes are needed at the Santa Clara County Assessor’s Office, including the completion of an ongoing tech modernization and reform measures to reduce assessment and appeals times.
But each also maintains their own background is best suited to carry out those reforms.
“I will be the first to tell you that there are things that need to be improved,” Fligor, an employee in the assessor’s office, told San José Spotlight. “But I also bring a fresh perspective, and when I see that change needs to be made, I’m the first one to say, let’s figure out how to do this and do it well.”
Since July, Fligor has been serving as assistant assessor for the agency, helping to oversee the office of 250 workers and its $55 million budget. She first joined the assessor’s office in 2024 as a special assistant to the assessor.
In contrast, Kumar has a background as a Silicon Valley tech executive. In the assessor’s race, he has positioned himself as a tax hawk with the technical and managerial chops to lead the assessor’s office in a new direction.
“We need somebody who is a reformist, somebody who’s not an insider, and can reorient the assessor’s office to make it work for the people,” Kumar told San José Spotlight.
The race was sparked over the summer by the retirement of longtime County Assessor Larry Stone, who held the role for 30 years. The winner will finish out Stone’s term through the end of 2026, but will then need to run again for a full four-year term.
Piling up donors and endorsements
Whoever emerges victorious 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.
Fligor has secured Stone’s endorsement, along with a bevy of South Bay establishment politicians, including Congressmember Sam Liccardo, Assemblymember Marc Berman and District 4 County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg. Kumar has racked up endorsements from local elected officials, including former Assemblymembers Kansen Chu and Nora Campos, as well as Cupertino Mayor Liang Fang.
Fligor’s vote lead is matched by an even larger funding advantage. So far, she has raised more than $298,000 through donations and loans, according to recent campaign filings. Kumar has raised roughly $22,000. He said he has turned down some donations from special interest groups to maintain his campaign’s independence.
Fligor — a lawyer who previously worked for both HP and Santa Clara County — has criticized Kumar’s credentials, pointing out that, unlike her, he lacks an official certification as a property tax appraiser. All California assessors are required by law to obtain the state-issued certification within one year of taking office.
“It demonstrates that I already know the work in the office,” Fligor said. “I’ll be able to hit the ground running on day one.”
Kumar said he wouldn’t have trouble obtaining the certification. Regardless, Kumar made the case that his own experience is best suited for the challenges presently facing the assessor’s office. In particular, he argues his years of experience in the tech sector as a C-suite executive have given him the right mix of skills to shepherd forward the intricate process of transferring the assessor’s office onto a new computer system. The long-awaited modernization project got underway after the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved the purchase of the new system in June.
“We need somebody who understands modernization,” he said. “When I was part of IBM, we did modernization. I was a hands on guy … I was living and breathing that world for almost 10 years.”
Candidates at odds on tax strategy
During the campaign, Kumar has also highlighted his various efforts to block fee and tax hikes over the course of his career in local government. Most recently that has included the No on Measure A Tax Committee, which Kumar chaired. Santa Clara County voters on Nov. 4 passed Measure A — a five-eighth cent sales tax increase intended to fill a major federal funding gap — with 57% of tallied votes cast in its favor.
Kumar has attempted to carry his tax-skeptical politics into his platform for assessor as well. His signature campaign initiative is a plan to sponsor a state ballot measure to completely eliminate property taxes for many homeowners aged 60 and over.
The plan has sparked considerable pushback. Fligor calls this campaign strategy “irresponsible,” noting the county assessor has no direct authority to set tax policy. But Kumar argues the assessor’s prominent role in local politics offers a prime opportunity to push for the reform.
While Fligor’s vote lead in the November election is formidable, the runoff campaign remains competitive, Melinda Jackson, a San Jose State University political science professor, said.
“A county assessor race does not get a lot of attention,” Jackson told San José Spotlight. “It will be starting fresh with a new electorate in December.”
Contact Keith Menconi at keith@sanjosespotlight.com or @KeithMenconi on X.
This story originally appeared in San Jose Spotlight.