Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Erika Contreras

No. 27 Erika Contreras

Every ship needs a captain and in the California Senate it is Erika Contreras. Yes, it is. No, it is not the pro Tem. Because elected folks don’t make the trains run on time. They don’t set rules for how the body will operate. They don’t deal with personnel and…. you get it. With that in mind it is not absurd to call Erika Contreras perhaps the most important unelected person in the California Legislature. As the nonpartisan chief administrator and parliamentarian of the upper chamber, she oversees all those things we said at the top of this paragraph. In fact, she controls every aspect of how the institution actually functions, from human resources and accounting to contracts and legal issues to operations and facilities both in Sacramento and in nearly 70 district office spaces. She is also head of the 150 folks who staff the Senate Rules Committee, perhaps the most powerful in the body. She even gets to tell TV reporters where they can and can’t have their cameras. I mean, seriously, this woman has power!

Updated Aug. 11, 2026