Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Brian Rice

17. Brian Rice

Organized labor is a powerful political force in California, and one of the most important unions is the 30,000-member California Professional Firefighters, which represents firefighters in local districts across the state. The CPF’s president is the blunt-spoken Brian Rice, who earlier headed the Sacramento Firefighters’ Local 522. The CPF has traditionally been close to Democratic governors,
and is the go-to place when they need political help, such as when CPF took the lead in getting Jerry Brown’s budget-balancing Prop. 30 ballot measure approved, or when President Trump said California’s wildfires stemmed from its failure to “rake its forests;” or when Gov. Newsom misspoke on prescribed fires, and Rice immediately went to his defense. Last year, CPF noted that “all CPF priority and sponsored bills had been signed by the governor,” a fact due in part to Christy Bouma, CPF’s veteran lobbyist, who recently signed on as Newsom’s legislative secretary. (No. 20).

Updated Aug. 10, 2022