Tech entrepreneur and Santa Clara County assessor candidate Gary Kremen, who founded Match.com, is pulling out of the race following an accusation that he sent semi-nude pictures of himself and his longtime partner to a former staffer via Dropbox.
The anonymous staffer, who worked on Kremen’s campaign for several months last year, told San José Spotlight that the topless photos “coupled with other questionable behavior from Kremen caused emotional and mental anguish, eventually forcing them to quit working for him.” Hours after the story broke, Kremen confirmed in an email to the Bay Area News Group that he had withdrawn from the race.
Kremen also serves as the chair of the board of directors for the Santa Clara Valley Water District.
Kremen’s staffer told Spotlight that Kremen uploaded photos of himself and his partner in bed, nude from the chest up, to a Dropbox folder used to store campaign-related photos. In four photos, Kremen’s partner’s breast is exposed, according to Spotlight.
In an email to the Bay Area News Group, Kremen said he had asked the staffer — who he referred to as a former personal assistant — to pick out some photos of his family. Kremen didn’t have time to weed through his 20,000 photos first, so he uploaded his entire iPhone photo library to Dropbox and shared it with the staffer.
The semi-nude photos, which were accidentally uploaded along with the rest, appear to have been taken shortly before or after Kremen’s partner was breastfeeding their son, he said.
“As a new dad, I was excited to capture every moment with my family and took many shots of us all. It never occurred to me that this would become a problem,” Kremen wrote in an email to the Bay Area News Group. “I do not feel any shame for taking photos of my child eating or my partner preparing to feed him. While I inadvertently left the four photos in my photo album, they are part of the natural process of motherhood and being a family that supports public or private breastfeeding. A woman shouldn’t be made to feel ashamed, humiliated, or in any way wrong for feeding their children.”
The anonymous staffer told Spotlight that Kremen joked about and refused to delete the pictures. The staffer also reported Kremen did other things to make them uncomfortable, such as encouraging them to drink at parties, sometimes touching their shoulders and legs, and showing them (fully clothed) photos of himself with pornographic actors.
Kremen denied those allegations.
“These are lies meant to get back at me for severing our working relationship, damage my family, and to hurt my former campaign for change at the assessor’s office,” Kremen wrote in an email to the Bay Area News Group.
Senator Dave Cortese and Michele Dauber, a member of the Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee, called on Kremen to resign immediately from his political and governmental seats, and to end his current campaign.
“I am saddened and shocked to hear this public account of Mr. Kremen that was made today by his former staff member,” Cortese wrote in an emailed statement. “I’d like to express my gratitude for the individual who courageously shared what they lived through; facing this type of mistreatment is something no one should have to endure, whether it be in a workplace setting or elsewhere.”
Dauber echoed Cortese’s sentiments.
“The allegations against Gary Kremen are essentially of a hostile work environment, including sharing intimate photos, bullying, intimidation, and showing photos of pornographic actors to a subordinate,” she wrote. “These are the kinds of workplace conditions that women have been fighting against for decades. I commend the staffer who came forward, and urge Gary Kremen to end his campaign and resign from office.”
Gary Kremen should drop out of the Assessor’s race. Allegedly showing nude photos to an employee, paying in cash, bullying and threats, drinking and discussing pornography are all unacceptable working conditions. We need a female candidate @sobaylabor https://t.co/AZNIyJuv3P
— Michele Dauber (@mldauber) February 26, 2022
In an email to the Bay Area News Group, Kremen said his relationship with the former staffer ended after a heated disagreement over Israel and Palestine, as well as a vote by the Stonewall Democratic Club — of which they both were members. Kremen said he lost his temper and his tone was “inexcusable.” But he said to “secretly” keep copies of his photos and share them was a “betrayal of trust, and possibly a violation of the law.”
The Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur gained attention in the 1990s by first registering the domain sex.com and for his widely-known dating site. He was running for the Santa Clara County assessor’s seat against Larry Stone, who has occupied the position since 1994. Kremen was Stone’s first serious reelection challenger since 2006.
The agency for which Kremen hoped to hold the top seat is responsible for determining the taxable value of all private and public property in the county.
