93. Randall Hagar
Randall Hagar, legislative advocate for the Psychiatric Physicians Alliance of California, has quietly, for decades, played a key role in complex policy and legislative efforts to reform California’s notoriously patchwork system of mental health care. It’s a
90. Michael Romano
Michael Romano is the founder and director of the Three Strikes Project at Stanford Law School, which seeks to amend or reverse the most unjust criminal sentences under the law. Since 2006, the effort has overturned 18
86. Arnie Sowell Jr.
Arnie Sowell Jr. is the Executive Director of Nextgen Policy, the California-based nonprofit launched by billionaire Tom Steyer to advocate for progressive policies in the Golden State. Steyer (a habituè of this list for several years)
14. Anthony York
Anthony York has solid journalistic chops – Salon, McClatchy, LA Times and, most important of all, Capitol Weekly – but in his current role he occupies what newsies traditionally call the “dark side.” He’s the governor’s top
16. Andrew Meredith
Andrew Meredith is another new name on this list, heading the State Building and Construction Trades Council, or BCTC. The top-tier labor group is affiliated through local unions with 450,000 workers focused mostly – but not entirely
10. Ben Chida
Ben Chida is a new name on this list, but you might as well get used to him – he’s going to be around awhile. Chida, 36, currently (it may change before we go to press) is
9. Lauren Sanchez
Lauren Sanchez is Gov. Newsom’s senior climate adviser, a position that didn’t even exist – either in title or substance – until relatively recently. Her title includes “senior” – a real stretch, since she’s only 32 years
Illustration by Chris Shary17. Yolanda Richardson
Yolanda Richardson heads a cabinet-level agency called “GovOps,” or Government Operations Agency, which Jerry Brown created in 2013 and is intended to bring organization and rigor to nearly a dozen state operations, including Human Resources, the Census
Illustration by Chris Shary27. Thom Porter
Thom Porter is Gov. Gov. Newsom’s top fire fighter, a daunting task in a state which seems to face huge fires every summer and into the fall, sparked in part by the impacts of climate change. Porter
Illustration by Chris Shary32. Eloy Oakley
Eloy Oakley is the chancellor of California’s community college system, the largest postsecondary system in the United States with 2.1 million students, 73 districts and about 115 colleges. The community college system is hugely important in California, and