Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Brandon Castillo

59. Brandon Castillo

As one of the Capitol community’s top political strategists, Brandon Castillo is often the first call for big-dollar interests looking to push a high-stakes ballot measure across the finish line. In that role he was instrumental in a 2020 measure (Prop. 22) that made app-based rideshare drivers independent contractors and in defeating three separate ballot measures over six years looking to impose stricter regulations on the state’s dialysis clinics. He was also the man at the helm of last year’s Prop. 35, which made the tax on managed health care insurance providers permanent, with the funds going to Medi-Cal, taking away the ability of lawmakers to use the money on other things. That hasn’t won him any fans among the small community hospitals or disability advocates, who often were the “other things” mentioned in the last sentence. But big ballot measure wins are nothing new for him, as he has been racking them up since 1990. And with next year’s ballot measure campaigns already kicking into gear, you can bet his phone has been blowing up for months.

Updated Aug. 26 2025