Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Danny Curtin

75. Danny Curtin

The California Conference of Carpenters has emerged as a key player in the Housing conversation, marking out more nuanced positions that sometimes put them at odds with their labor compadres the State Building and Construction Trades Council. The pragmatic approach is not new territory for Carpenters’ head Danny Curtin, who wrote in a 2007 Sac Bee op ed: “Labor has lost sight of a fundamental political maxim: Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” That attitude helped Curtin develop a good working relationship with Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a relationship which rankled many in Labor at the time. Curtin, of Sacramento, has served as director for the California Conference of Carpenters since 2001 and previously held the same position from 1992 to 1999. From 1999 to 2001, he served as chief deputy director for the Department of Industrial Relations. Prior to that, Curtin was a legislative advocate for the California Conference of Carpenters. He also serves on the State Compensation Insurance Fund Board of Directors, the Economic Development Commission, and the Industrial Welfare Commission.