This article first appeared in the Nov. 13 print edition of the Post. To get the news when it’s fresh, be sure to pick up a copy every morning.
BY DANIEL SCHRAGER
Daily Post Staff Writer
As the two remaining candidates for Santa Clara County Assessor gear up for next month’s runoff, they won’t just have to compete with each other – they’ll be competing with a slew of holidays as well.
The $13 million runoff election will be held Dec. 30, a day before New Year’s Eve. The eight weeks between the two elections include nearly the entire holiday season.
Los Altos Vice Mayor Neysa Fligor, who led the way with 38% of the vote Nov. 4, said her campaign is worried people will forget about the runoff amid holiday celebrations and travel.
“Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa – many different holidays over the next eight weeks that people will be focused on, as they should,” Fligor said in a phone call with the Daily Post. “So our campaign will have to figure out how to still get our message out and to get their attention, and also to remind folks that there is a runoff election.”
Fligor, who served as the assessor’s office attorney over a decade ago and was endorsed by longtime assessor Larry Stone, said her campaign is trying to get ahead of the issue by encouraging voters to cast their ballots early.
“The ballots will go out in the mail Dec. 8. So part of our message will be to let people know, vote early, please vote early before you get too far into your holiday celebrations,” Fligor said. Her opponent, former Saratoga Councilman Rishi Kumar, is taking a different approach. Kumar, who received 24% of the vote, said his campaign won’t be too active during the days leading up to the runoff.
“Holidays are the time where we slow down and smell the cookies and bake some cookies and enjoy family time,” Kumar said in a phone interview. Kumar said his campaign won’t be bothering anyone during the holidays.
Kumar, who ran as an outsider hoping to automate much of the assessor’s office, said he’s concerned the holidays could get in the way of the campaign, but that it’s outside of his control.
Encouraged by results
Both candidates said they were encouraged by last week’s results – Fligor because she led all candidates by nearly 14 percentage points and Kumar because he believes he’ll get voters who supported the other two candidates without experience in the assessor’s office, San Jose’s East Side Union School District board member Bryan Do and Saratoga Councilwoman Yan Zhao.
“There is a disparity between the top vote getter and me, but we believe that the coalition of votes with Bryan Do and Yan Zhao and myself will come together,” Kumar said.
Fligor plans to stick to her campaign’s central message, that she’s the only candidate with experience in the office. She said community leaders who supported Zhao and Do at first have reached out to her offering their support.
Worried people won’t vote
However, she is worried that some of her supporters assume she already won because of her strong showing last week and will forget about the runoff.
“I can’t tell you the number of people who have reached out to me over the last week congratulating me, thinking the election is over,” she said.
Since election day, her campaign has received seven new donations of at least $999, according to campaign finance forms filed to the county. In the lead-up to the election, her campaign brought in $293,949, according to a filing that goes through Oct. 18. Kumar’s campaign has received a single $1,000 donation since election day, after receiving $20,671 total as of Oct. 18.
More energy this time
Kumar said his runoff campaign will likely be more energetic. Kumar’s father died in the middle of the campaign and Kumar caught malaria while attending the funeral in Mumbai, he said.
“We weren’t really running a high energy campaign,” Kumar said.
Now, he says, “we are back to the drill, which is a good, regular Rishi Kumar campaign.”