Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Laiza Negrete

42. Laiza Negrete

For years Laiza Negrete has been content to mostly fly under the radar. But as the head of the California Association of Realtors political action committee and the organization’s top political strategist, she is without question a major player in California policymaking. For one, her organization has a lot of members – around 200,000 – and a lot of money to spend. Or as one description of her once stated, “she is the director of more money than God and willing to spend it.” Well, we’re not deifying anyone, but that sounds about right. And it isn’t just in housing or development. Sources tell us Negrete has a finger in a lot of business-related pies around the region, and you can bet she and her group are already in with both feet on a few ballot measures in November. Because, as we’ve been saying, money makes a lot of things happen. Negrete previously worked for the Independence Party of New York and is a board member on the Independent Voter Project, which encourages nonpartisan voters to get out to the polls. She is a graduate of Sacramento State.