Capitol Weekly’s Top 10 Capitol power couples

In just a few months, Capitol Weekly will unveil its 16th annual Top 100 list recognizing the most influential members of the Capitol community.

As we began researching this year’s list, however, we realized that in all our years of the Top 100 we’ve never deeply explored a critical dynamic of Capitol clout: the Capitol power couple whose combined prominence and rolodex is greater than the sum of their parts.

To rectify that, today we publish our first ever Capitol Weekly Top 10 Power Couples, along with three up-and-coming pairs to keep your eyes on.

As with the Top 100, choosing the top power couples wasn’t easy. In fact, in some ways it was even harder than choosing the Top 100. With the Top 100, you’re just trying to rank individuals by their sway and skill and stature. When you start considering couples, that opens up all kinds of other questions we’d never had to consider before.

Does each member of a couple have to hold titles of relatively equal importance to be considered “more influential” than a couple in which one spouse clearly has a higher profile? Do couples whose portfolios stretch from, say, the ranks of the lobbying corps to the building have greater leverage than spouses who both work as legislative aides? Are spouses who both work for the same lobbying firm less influential than a couple who works for two different firms?

With the Top 100, you’re just trying to rank individuals by their sway and skill and stature. When you start considering couples, that opens up all kinds of other questions we’d never had to consider before.

What actually constitutes a power couple anyway, particularly in the Capitol community?

As always, it’s subjective. No matter how many people we talk to, no matter how many metrics or ranking methodologies we consider, there’s no definitive way to determine which couples wield the most power and influence over our little slice of the political world.

But that’s never stopped us from trying. Similar to our process of crafting the Top 100, we consulted with various Capitol insiders we trust and tried to take a holistic approach to this ranking, considering several aspects of power coupledom: social prominence and popularity, prestige and stature, raw power and influence.

More than anything, however, we were guided by one simple principle, the theoretical ability of the couple to pick up the phone and connect directly and immediately with anyone in the Capitol community.

That, in our minds, puts the power in power couple.

The Top 10 Capitol Power Couples

1. Ann Patterson and Nathan Barankin

Ann Patterson and Nathan Barankin might not be the first to come to mind when you think of Capitol power couples (we’ll get to the couple everyone thinks of in a minute), but in terms of proximity to the biggest and most important names in California politics today, nobody has this twosome beat. As Gov. Gavin Newsom’s cabinet secretary (and previously his legal secretary), Patterson has a direct line to the most powerful elected official in all the Golden State, and he also might just be president someday. Her husband, on the other hand, was the former chief of staff to the vice president, Kamala Harris, when she was state attorney general and U.S. senator. When you think of California politics in 2024, Harris and Newsom are at the top of the heap – and this couple can get either one of them on the phone without a problem. It doesn’t get any more influential than that.

2. Nicole and Jason Elliot

Much like our No. 1 couple, the Elliots rank so high on our list because of Jason’s close association with the governor as Newsom’s trusted advisor and deputy chief of staff. But don’t get it twisted: Nicole isn’t just hanging on for the ride. As the director of the California Department of Cannabis Control, Nicole oversees the Earth’s biggest and most lucrative cannabis market with revenue equal to that of a small county’s gross domestic product. Although Jason announced he will be leaving the governor’s office in June to start his own consulting firm, he and Newsom both say he will continue to be a regular and trusted advisor to the most powerful figure in California. Nicole, meanwhile, remains the most powerful figure in California cannabis. That’s the definition of a power couple right there.

3. Donna and Greg Lucas

Donna and Greg Lucas are almost certainly who comes to mind when you think of Capitol power couples, and for good reason. They’re prominent. They’re powerful. They’re popular. Donna is one of the leading public relations and strategic communications minds in Sacramento, a perennial presence on our Top 100. Meanwhile, Greg, during his days an ink-stained wretch, was one of the few journalists who could get any governor to take his call. Now in his second act as the state librarian, he oversees a bigger budget than you might imagine, and he remains the kind of dashing figure who can seamlessly pass into any Capitol gathering, regardless of who it might involve. It’s not at all a stretch to say that Donna and Greg’s example is why we contemplated a power couple list in the first place.

4. Alicia and Mandy Isaacs-Lee

Someday, when we do this list again, don’t be surprised to see Alicia and Mandy Isaacs-Lee in the No. 1 spot. They’re both so good at what they do it seems almost inevitable that they will become the next Donna and Greg, the prototype for the Capitol power couple. Mandy is the founder and principal of Omni Government Relations, representing the likes of AT&T, Kaiser and CVS, as well as prominent and well-respected LGBTQ activist serving on the board of Equality California. Alicia is the deputy chief of staff to Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, making her one of the most powerful people in all of the building. But more than their titles, both of these women are deeply respected for their consistent ability to just get stuff done. As much as any couple on this list, they embody all aspects of the word power: influence, prestige and, perhaps most importantly, knowhow.

5. Jodi Hicks and Paul Mitchell

It’s almost unfair how influential Jodi Hicks and Paul Mitchell are as a couple. Hicks is the CEO and president of the Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, arguably the state’s most active combatant in this era’s culture war over abortion. Her leadership on the issue stretches far beyond the boundaries of the Golden State, with her voice carrying considerable weight nationwide. Mitchell, as the vice president of Political Data, Inc. and owner of Redistricting Partners, is seemingly every California news outlet’s favorite election analyst. A top pollster, Mitchell has a knack for not only plumbing California election data for original insights, but also talking about them in an engaging, easy-to-understand way. These two are about as high profile as you get in the Capitol community. (Note: Hicks is on the board of Open California, the publisher of Capitol Weekly.)

6. Soyla Fernandez and Kelly Jensen

This is another couple whose sphere of influence is, well, enormous.  Soyla Fernandez and Kelly Jensen are leaders of two of the biggest lobbying firms in Sacramento. Jensen is a partner at Sloat Higgins Jensen & Associates, which received more than $6 million in payments through the first 15 months of the 2023-24 legislative cycle. Fernandez is the president of Fernandez Jensen Kimmelshue Government Affairs, which brought in more than $4 million over that time. Combined, their two firms represent more than 75 lobbyist employers, including big names like Accenture, Anheuser-Busch, the California Chamber of Commerce, Chevron, Coca-Cola, Edison, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, McDonald’s, Meta, PG&E, U.S. Bancorp and Verizon. Need we say more why they’re on this list?

7. Teri Holoman and Andrew Antwih

This couple combines political power and breadth of influence in a way unlike any other on this list. Teri Holman is the associate director of government relations for the California Teachers Association, one of the most powerful interest groups in the Capitol community, if not the most powerful. Andrew Antwih is a partner in the lobbying firm of Shaw Yoder Antwih Schmelzer & Lange, which boasts more than 90 clients (including Boeing, the California Medical Association, FedEx, the Humane Society of the United States, the cities of Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and West Hollywood and Sacramento, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus and Tulare counties) and received nearly $10 million in payments over the first 15 months of the 2023-24 legislative cycle. If it’s happening in the Capitol community, this couple is almost certainly connected to it, in some way. (Full disclosure: Holoman is also a member of the Open California board.)

No matter how many people we talk to, no matter how many metrics or ranking methodologies we consider, there’s no definitive way to determine which couples wield the most power and influence over our little slice of the political world. But that’s never stopped us from trying.

8. Glenda and Dustin Corcoran

Glenda and Dustin are a bit like Donna and Greg Lucas: they’re an inseparable pairing that seems to always exist together in the collective consciousness of the Capitol community. As the CEO of the California Medical Association, Dustin is one of the most powerful players in all of the Capitol, representing more than 50,000 doctors statewide. (He was No. 12 on the Top 100 last year.) Glenda is the district director for Congresswoman Doris Matsui, the U.S. Representative whose district includes the State Capitol itself. Their worlds don’t overlap perhaps quite as much as members of the other couples on this list. But that just serves to widen the Corcorans’ influence even more.

9. Flo and Chris Kahn

The Kahns keep a little lower profile than some of the other couples on this list. But don’t let that fool you: they have influence in spades. Flo is the deputy vice president of state advocacy for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, AKA PhRMA, which employs six lobbying firms (Fernandez Jensen Kimmelshue Government Affairs, the Apex Group, the Capitol Strategies Group, Heyworth Government Affairs, Noteware Government Relations and Gladfelty Government Relations) and spent more than $1.5 million on lobbying through the first 15 months of the legislative cycle. Chris runs his own one-man lobbying firm, with clients including Edison, Pfizer and Walmart. Chris Kahn Consulting ranked among the top 90 Sacramento lobbying firms in payments received through the first five quarters of the cycle. They might not be the first Capitol power couple you think of, but they undoubtedly meet the definition.

10. Mark Weideman and Jennifer Wada

Mark Weideman heads the fifth largest lobbying firm by payments received (more than $10 million through the first 15 months of the legislative cycle), with clients as diverse as Blue Shield of California, the California Lawyers Association and the Carnival Corporation, operators of the well-known cruise line. Jennifer Wada leads a considerably smaller, one-woman lobbying firm of her own, Wada Government Relations, which subcontracts with her husband’s operation and whose clients had included the State Bar of California until it dramatically cut back its lobbying activity this cycle. Like the Kahns, Weideman and Wada stay a bit under the radar, but their reach is long.

3 Up-and-Coming Capitol Power Couples

1. Sami Gallegos and Nick Miller

Ten years ago, Sami Gallegos and Nick Miller were known for their associations with small Sacramento publications, Capitol Weekly and the Sacramento News & Review, respectively. My how things have changed. Gallegos is now the deputy secretary of the Health and Human Services Agency while Miller is the director of communications for the Assembly Speaker. As lowly scribes still with Capitol Weekly, we can attest: those are impressive evolutions indeed. Give them another decade and they could be a top power couple in the Capitol community.

2. Nikki Johnson and Janus Norman

Janus Norman already cracked the Top 100 last year as the president of the California Broadband and Video Association, otherwise known as CalBroadband, which rose in prominence during the pandemic when high internet speed became a vital issue. But his wife, Nikki Johnson, is a force in her own right as the chief of staff to Downey Assemblywoman Blanca Pacheco, who chairs the oh-so-powerful Rules Committee. And something tells us this couple is just getting started. Watch out.

3. Chloe Bowman Nielsen and Chris Nielsen

It took us to the very end, but we finally got some bipartisan love on the list. Chris Nielsen is the capitol director for Senate Pro Tem Mike McGuire, a Democrat. Chloe Bowman Nielsen is the legislative director for Rocklin Assemblyman Joe Patterson, a Republican. We don’t want to ahead of ourselves here, but it’s possible these two could someday evolve into Sacramento’s version of Mary Matalin and James Carville.