Incumbent easily wins race against county supervisor
By midnight Tuesday, Larry Stone appeared well on his way to a fourth term as county assessor.
Half the county’s votes had been tallied and more than 119,000 voters – or 76 percent – had chosen the three-term incumbent over challenger Pete McHugh, a Santa Clara County supervisor.
“I’m very surprised at the margin,” Stone said. “In fact we had a little pool here and I predicted 67 percent of the vote, so I’m 10 points beyond what I thought I’d get.”
McHugh, who did not return a late call to his campaign number, has not tried to conceal his distaste for Stone. Last year, fellow supervisors chastised McHugh for trying to engineer a new ethics policy that he admitted was aimed at Stone.
With an eye on Stone’s property development interests and fundraising activities, McHugh tried to change county law to prohibit elected officials from certain kinds of outside employment and force them to disclose all of their fundraising efforts.
“There is an implied power in his office to solicit donations. He has a power to influence assessments and settlements of appeal,” said McHugh at the time. He, like Stone, is a Democrat.
“There is a perceived conflict of interest in his business as a developer and I would like him to concentrate on his duties as assessor,” said McHugh.
This is not the first time McHugh and Stone have tangled horns. Stone defeated the current supervisor in a 1994 primary that eventually catapulted him to the assessor’s seat. In 1998, Stone was re-elected with 73 percent of the vote and in 2002, he ran unopposed.
“Pete has been my most formidable opponent,” Stone said Tuesday night. “I welcomed him into the race back when we started. We had some spirited discussions about who was the most qualified for the office and I think, based upon the margins here, the voters made a clear choice.”
