Gary Kremen ended his campaign for Santa Clara County assessor Saturday in response to allegations that he shared semi-nude photos with a campaign staffer.
Kremen, chair of the Valley Water board, suspended his run for assessor Saturday after local news outlets San Jose Spotlight and the Mercury News published the allegations. The staffer allegedly discovered the photos of Kremen and his longtime partner, Essy Stone, while sorting through an online Dropbox of campaign-related
photos.
The anonymous staffer allegedly told San Jose Spotlight Kremen made light of the photos when brought to his attention and refused to remove them. Kremen denied the allegations and any wrongdoing.
In an email exchange with the Town Crier, Kremen maintained his innocence despite the campaign suspension.
“This made up ‘scandal’ is defocusing the above goal (my campaign for assessor) so, I am withdrawing from the campaign, even though this county needs change.”
He told the Town Crier there were four photos in question among more than 20,000 uploaded to the campaign drive.
“I didn’t have time to go pick out some campaign photos, nor did I have time to go through each photo and see if there happened to be any personal photos in there,” Kremen told San Jose Spotlight. “But to
imply I showed them to upset someone on the team is shocking.”
State Sen. Dave Cortese and Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee member Michele Dauber encouraged Kremen to suspend his campaign after the allegations were published.
“There is no place for this type of behavior in public service, and I call on Mr. Kremen to immediately resign from his political and governmental seats and end his current campaign,” Cortese said in a statement.
Kremen, a tech entrepreneur who started Match.com in the 1990s, served on the Purissima Hills Water District board in Los Altos Hills before being elected to the Valley Water board in 2014. As early as March 2021, he expressed interest in challenging longtime incumbent Larry Stone for county assessor.
Kremen and Stone, who has held the job since 1994, traded public jabs in the campaign’s early going.
In January, Stone accused Kremen of stealing his list of donor emails. Kremen called out Stone’s management of the assessor’s office, citing Stone’s resistance to letting employees work from home during the pandemic.
Kremen’s campaign boasted endorsements from more than 70 elected officials, including members of the Mountain View City Council, and $241,273 in donations, $170,000 of which he contributed himself. According to the Mercury News, Kremen had spent $86,846 on his campaign as of Feb. 15. Stone had spent only $12,329.
