Santa Clara County Assessor Lawrence Stone announced that his right-hand-man, David Ginsborg, will retire on July 1 after 24 years, just as Stone gears up for a contested reelection campaign.

Judge Patricia Lucas, meanwhile, has asked the plaintiffs to return to court next month with a new appraisal on the property in question.

For a scheme with such potentially devastating consequences on schools and local governments, it’s garnered surprisingly little attention.

San Jose helped spearhead a record-setting year for property values in Santa Clara County, according to a recently released report.

County Assessor Larry Stone is suing over what he calls a stunningly flawed decision to give the NFL team a massive tax break.

What would’ve been a routine nomination erupted into a political brawl between county Assessor Larry Stone and Supervisor Dave Cortese.

All but one of the candidates vying for county Supervisor Ken Yeager’s seat have surpassed the quarter-million dollar fundraising mark.

A citizen watchdog says he found evidence of even more dysfunction in the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District.

Any day now, the 2014 San Jose mayoral race is expected to start, with two Sicilian-Americans from wealthy families and a Vietnamese immigrant vice mayor formally declaring their intent to run. But in the coming months, several unexpected candidates could join Sam Liccardo, Dave Cortese and Madison Nguyen.

Count Barbara Keegan among those most flabbergasted with her landslide victory last week for a seat on the Santa Clara Valley Water District board. But if it were up to the opinion editor at our local daily, Keegan would have pulled out of the race months ago. That would have allowed David Ginsborg, deputy to the county’s tax assessor, to easily claim retiring Joe Judge’s board seat. Barbara Marshman, the Mercury News’ editorial writer and decider of all things good and natural emailed Keegan in early August to try and cajole her into dropping out of the race.

Billions spent nationally, two years of nonstop campaigning and essentially nothing changed. But the outcome of Tuesday’s election will help the economy. Gov. Jerry Brown reigns supreme. People voted to tax themselves and Democrats have super majorities in the legislature. Happy days are here again!

One of the Election Night’s big surprises was the shellacking County Assessor deputy David Ginsborg took in his aggressive bid to win a board seat on the Santa Clara Valley Water District. Barbara Keegan finished almost 25 points ahead of his paltry 32 percent of the vote, while Drew Spitzer finished a distant third.

If we’re grading embarrassing flip-flops on a scale of 1-10, the San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce’s decision this week to unendorse candidate Drew Spitzer for a seat on the Santa Clara Valley Water District board has to rate somewhere in the teens.

Joe Judge will raise his glass and take a final sip from the Santa Clara Valley Water District chalice at the end of this year. The District 2 board member, who has held the position for 26 years, surprised many Tuesday by announcing that he will retire when his term expires in December. This comes as good or bad news, depending on how much you care about water.

Scott Knies seems to have adopted the strategy that less is more when it comes to unseating Joe Judge in the November election for a seat on the Santa Clara Valley Water District board. In a letter sent last week to supporters of his candidacy, Knies, the executive director of the San Jose Downtown Association, wrote that he has withdrawn from the race and will throw his support behind David Ginsborg, a deputy to County Assessor Larry Stone.

David Ginsborg, right-hand man to county tax assessor Larry Stone, is running for a seat on the Santa Clara Valley Water District board come next November. We’re not sure why anyone would want to spend waking hours noodling on water policy, but then again it can’t be any less exciting than tax assessments. Ginsborg isn’t the only one running against incumbent Joe Judge, though.