Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Rob Lapsley

68. Rob Lapsley

Rob Lapsley knows business and politics, and he’s a strong advocate for traditionally Republican pro-business concerns, including lower taxation, less regulation and prudent spending. Much of his career has been spent fighting repeated efforts to weaken or eliminate the property tax-cutting Proposition 13 of 1978. Lapsley, courtly and silver-haired, has headed the California Business Roundtable, a nonprofit group that targets research and strategy, since 2011. Before that he was political director for the California Chamber of Commerce, with whom he continues to maintain close ties. An Air Force veteran and a former special assistant to the U.S. ambassador in Spain, Lapsley served as chief of staff from 1995 to 2001 to former California Secretary of State Bill Jones, one of California’s last Republican statewide officeholders.

Updated Aug. 9, 2022