Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Rob Lapsley

47. Rob Lapsley

Rob Lapsley has been described previously in this list as silver-haired and courtly, one of the last “real Republicans.” We’ve tried to update our bios this year, but that’s just too perfect of a description, so we’re keeping it. An Air Force vet, Lapsley is the president of the California Business Roundtable, a nonprofit research and advocacy group comprised of senior executives from major employers throughout the state – that is, the kind of business leaders who can command respect even in a Democratic-controlled state. That rings true even though the CBRT’s big anti-tax ballot measure got swept off the ballot by the California Supreme Court. While that loss was brutal, it says a lot about Lapsley and his pull that they got it onto the ballot in the first place. Lapsley is the former political director of the California Chamber of Commerce and served as the chief of staff to Bill Jones, the Republican secretary of state from 1995 to 2003, one of the last GOP statewide office holders.

Updated Aug. 7, 2024