Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Lindsey Cobia

13. Lindsey Cobia

By title, Lindsey Cobia is the Executive Director of Gavin Newsom’s Campaign for Democracy PAC, the governor’s high-profile national campaign to push back against conservative agendas in red states…and just maybe set him up for a presidential run. Newsom has pushed $10 million from his campaign war chest into the organization, which will help pay for his travel to those states “where democracy is most under attack” to pick fights…uh, make his case that the GOP agenda “is un-American.” But as we’ve already said, titles in this administration don’t always capture the full scope of what an inhabitant of Newsomland actually does in that world. In addition to running the PAC – which, make no mistake, is a really big deal to the governor – Cobia also has a finger into many, many things going on in the horseshoe. So much so that the joke there is that she really is Newsom’s Swiss army knife. Sometimes that can rub some of the administrative staff the wrong way, but when it comes to anything political Cobia has Newsom’s confidence and his ear. And one more thing: If you want your phone call to the governor returned, she’s probably the one you need to go through.