Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Paula Treat

57. Paula Treat

Paula Treat, who established one of California’s first woman-owned contract lobbying firms, is energetic, persuasive, well-informed and remarkably productive. When last we visited Treat, she had a handful of clients. Now she has 17, and the list continues to expand – and all this, amazingly, in her one-person lobbying operation. Clearly, she’s impressing a lot of people, including us. She appears to have had some solid victories this year, but we can’t describe them because we go to press before the session ends on August 31. Treat weathered the pandemic, working extensively out of her home, but has since opened an office in Sacramento. The personal tribulations of lobbyists – like most people – usually remain unknown. But during the #MeToo movement that swept the Capitol, Treat publicly detailed the harassment she experienced at the hands of the late Assemblymember Lou Papan, the Rules Committee chair and former FBI agent, who intimidated many of his colleagues. She spends her spare time with her hubby and their flock of Jack Russell Terriers: Baxter, Rita, Chloe and Hope.

Updated Aug. 9, 2022