Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Courtni Pugh

71. Courtni Pugh

Campaign consultant Courtni Pugh has had some huge wins and huge losses in her career. She played a critical role in the defeat of the 2021 recall effort against Gov. Gavin Newsom and has helped the big guy on his other successful in-state campaigns, like Proposition 1 last year. She also was a top consultant on 2022’s successful ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution. But she also has taken some big Ls, including former Senate pro Tem Kevin de Léon’s failed runs at the U.S. Senate and the Los Angeles mayor’s office. Still, she’s widely respected and boasts connections to just about every major Democrat between Los Angeles and the other side of the Potomac, including Rob Bonta and Kamala Harris. She is quite busy these days serving as a Senior Advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who at one time looked like a shoo-in for an easy re-election to run the nation’s second largest city. But the fallout from the fires and her ongoing battle with the Trump administration over Draconian immigration policies has made Pugh’s job a lot tougher.

Updated Aug. 26, 2025