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Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Rob Lapsley

40. Rob Lapsley

We always think of Rob Lapsley, an Air Force veteran, as one of the last of the “real Republicans” – courtly, silver-haired, staunchly pro-business and articulate. He heads the California Business Roundtable, a nonprofit research and advocacy group, founded in 1976, and it’s a good fit. He’s got the political chops: He is the former political director of the California Chamber of Commerce, and he served as chief of staff to Bill Jones, the Republican secretary of state from 1995 to 2003 and one of the last GOP statewide officeholders in an increasingly Democratic state. The CBRT says it includes senior executives from major companies, which have a “combined workforce of more than half a million employees,” so it is a potent business voice that frequently weighs in on legislation in the Capitol, whether it involves rent control, changes to Proposition 13 of 1978, cash bail or potential limits on CEO salaries.
The Roundtable doesn’t have as high a public profile as the Chamber of Commerce or the National Federation of Independent Business, but within the state Capitol it commands significant attention.

Updated Aug. 15, 2023

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