Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Dan Newman

No. 38 Dan Newman

Also a Principal at The Media Company, Newman has been a top strategist and advisor to a Who’s Who of California politicians for years. When he’s not talking pols in or out of doing something (or being the spokesperson trying to explain away California A.G. Rob Bonta spending almost $500K on a legal bills from a federal bribery investigation), he has also been a key figure in any number of statewide ballot measure campaigns. This year, like seemingly every political consultant in Sacramento, he is also working on the proposed billionaire tax initiative. (The No side.) He and business partner Brian Brokaw have also been the point folks on some high profile Bay Area matters, including raising money for Daniel Lurie’s successful mayoral campaign and the California Forever project, another tech billionaire effort, this time to turn thousands of acres of Solano County farmland into a new tech-centric city. And another Bay Area Big Tech client – OpenAI – brought them on to help craft the company a better public image. Fun fact: Newman’s bio says he once worked as a fish slimer. Somehow this must be relevant.

Updated Aug. 11, 2026