Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Jonathan Ross

No. 78 Jonathan Ross

Lobbyists are like lawyers; the big ones often have firms named after them. But that’s not the case for Jon Ross, a big name in California lobbying whose name doesn’t appear at the top of letterhead. Ross not only leads KP Public Affairs’ lucrative technology and financial services practices, but he also helped start KP’s predecessor firm, Kahl Pownall, and he and Ed Manning helped the firm transition to its current iteration. Considering that
KP is one of Sacramento’s top lobbying firms and has been for a while, those are no small feats. Ross’s official claim to fame is that he was the first outside lobbyist retained by Google, in 2006, but we also like that he has one of those instantly recognizable faces that you get used to seeing if you spend any time at the Capitol. He’s like the Walton Goggins of our little community, ever present but under celebrated.

Updated Aug. 11, 2026