Knapp defeats Kovacs in Kootenai County assessor primary by wide margin

Property owners in Kootenai County will soon have a new assessor after voters gave Allyson Knapp a 65% to 35% Republican primary win over Béla Kovacs, a result that put a longtime insider in line to take over an office that touches assessments, appeals and tax bills across the county.

Knapp finished with 17,451 votes on Tuesday and will run unopposed in the November general election. The margin was wide enough to read less like a routine primary result and more like a judgment on Kovacs’ time in office, which began in 2022 after the death of Rich Houser.

That office had been under strain for years. In November 2023, a front-footage entry error on a lakefront property pushed one valuation from $1.4 million in 2022 to $54.3 million in 2023. The mistake was not caught until October and affected seven taxing districts by nearly $200,000. County officials later said broader problems inside the assessor’s office delayed tax notices and contributed to a $53 million valuation issue.

The troubles did not stop there. In February 2024, Kovacs asked county commissioners to correct about 125 parcel errors before a statutory deadline. In March, commissioners directed him to fix more than 100 parcels that had been undercharged on taxes. On December 29, 2023, another disclosure deepened the distrust: Kovacs had secretly recorded conversations with employees and elected officials, including at least one executive session. County officials later said 15 conversations had been disclosed to Treasurer Steve Matheson.

Knapp also became part of the public fight over the assessor’s office this year when Kovacs challenged her homeowner’s exemption on a Rathdrum property. Commissioners Bruce Mattare and Leslie Duncan overruled Kovacs on January 15, 2026, while Marc Eberlein abstained because of his personal relationship with the assessor. The record showed Knapp had owned the property since 2018, had been registered to vote there since 2022, and had used the Rathdrum address on her driver’s license, vehicle registrations and utility bills.

The vote suggests Kootenai County Republicans were looking for steadier hands in offices that affect daily life, from whether tax notices arrive on time to whether a homeowner can trust an assessment. Knapp’s victory gives her that mandate, and it leaves her with a practical task: restore confidence in an office where more than 30 county employees had already issued a vote of no confidence in Kovacs ahead of the 2022 primary.

The assessor’s race was not the only county contest to deliver that message. Julie Hensley defeated John Padula in the District 1 county commissioner primary with 56% of the vote and 15,850 votes, and she too will run unopposed in November.