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Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Dana Williamson

Illustration by Chris Shary

1. Dana Williamson

Nobody has ever doubted Dana Williamson’s willingness to tackle the biggest jobs. Before stepping last fall into the hot seat that is being the governor’s chief of staff, she ran her own communications strategy firm, Grace Public Affairs. In that role, she established herself as one of the most respected and successful ballot measure campaign managers anywhere. So there is definite irony in her taking over as Gavin Newsom’s top lieutenant the same year that her most high-profile campaign ever – Proposition 27, the huge money ballot measure by DraftKings, FanDuel and others to establish online sports betting in California – got obliterated at the ballot box. But let’s take a breath here. Because if anyone deserves not to be judged on what most people would consider an anomaly, it’s Williamson. And as most people would attest, Williamson knows both politics and policy better than anybody. She spent six years or so as a senior advisor and then Cabinet Secretary for Gov. Jerry Brown, where she oversaw eleven state agencies. Williamson also previously served in the Clinton administration and as a key campaign strategist for both state Attorney General Rob Bonta and his predecessor, Xavier Becerra. She learned a lot of her craft at the side of the late Nancy McFadden, also one of the most respected chiefs the Capitol has seen. She’s a high-energy person, which is an absolute requirement for managing a job known for chewing people up and spitting them out. It is hard to fathom, but that might be even truer under Newsom than under Brown. Both are notorious sticklers for detail and famous for pushing their agendas as hard as is possible, though insiders have described the Brown experience as being very different than life in Newsomland. How so? Brown was the type to say “we’re going to do these three things really well and do them over and over and over again,” while Newsom is likely to say “we’re going to do these twenty-five things, etc.” That might explain why Williamson is Newsom’s third chief of staff since coming into office in 2018. Whether she is his last is yet to be seen, but insiders say there is nobody better suited to manage the pace, the policy and the politics of the job than her.

Updated Aug. 15, 2023

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