Neysa Fligor won the Dec. 30 runoff to become the new Santa Clara County assessor. Courtesy Neysa Fligor
Los Altos Vice Mayor Neysa Fligor cruised to victory Tuesday in a special election to become the next Santa Clara County assessor, defeating tech entrepreneur Rishi Kumar in the runoff race.
Fligor, who currently serves as assistant assessor, is now poised to succeed her former boss Larry Stone, who announced in June that he will be stepping down after about three decades in the assessor’s role. Assistant Assessor Greg Monteverde has been serving as acting assessor since Stone concluded his tenure in July.
Fligor sailed through the Dec. 30 election, picking up 66% of the vote, according to Santa Clara County Registrar’s Office. Kumar, who formerly served on the Saratoga City Council, picked up 35% of the vote. He had finished second in the Nov. 4 election for the assessor position. Because none of the four candidates in the race received more than 50% of the votes, the top two vote-getters squared off in the Dec. 30 runoff.
While the final results were still being tallied on Wednesday, Fligor enjoyed a commanding lead on Tuesday night, picking up nearly twice as many votes as Kumar. With early results showing Fligor with 108,556 votes and Kumar with 56,617 votes, Kumar conceded defeat late Tuesday night in a statement expressing gratitude to his supporters and volunteers.
“The people of Santa Clara County have spoken, and I respect the outcome. I have conveyed my congratulations to Neysa on a solid victory,” Kumar wrote.
Fligor also thanked her supporters as she celebrated her election victory.
“Thank you so much to everyone who voted and who helped with this campaign. Your support means so much to me and my team. I look forward to being your next Santa Clara County Assessor!” Fligor said in a statement.
The turnout for the runoff election was relatively low, with the registrar estimating that about 15.5% of the county’s roughly 1 million voters casted ballots.
Matt Moreles, the county’s registrar of voters, said in a Tuesday statement that the election was “unique in many respects, not least of which was the challenge of conducting an election during the holiday season.”
“This was the first time in our county’s history that voting locations were open for voting on Christmas Day,” Moreles said in the statement. “The timing of this election was also challenging because it followed so closely after the November statewide special election.”
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