Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Jason Elliot

11. Jason Elliott

Jason Elliot wants to save the world. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former Deputy Chief of Staff left the administration last year to start his own consulting firm, Versus, but as with many folks who announce their intentions to leave the Newsom inner circle, the actual leaving has been hard to do. Maybe that’s because Elliot has been working alongside Newsom since the governor’s mayoral days in SF, and there is practically nobody Newsom trusts more with…well, almost everything. Which is how you would describe Elliot’s purview during his time in Newsomworld – everything from housing and the budget to artificial intelligence and land use and political campaigns (including that pesky recall). The day-to-day responsibilities of those efforts went away with his resignation, but the regular phone calls and meetings to talk strategy about any and all of them has not. Much like former Chief of Staff Jim DeBoo, Elliot has remained a pivotal figure in Newsomworld. And now he hopes to leverage that political expertise to help Silicon Valley companies use AI to solve climate change, which might be the only thing harder than working for Newsom.

Updated Aug. 26, 2025