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Top 100 2026: The more things change… the more they change
I don’t have to tell anyone this is an election year. Between last November’s special election, the June primary and the impending mid-terms this fall, the winds of change – or not, depending on how a few things roll out – are everywhere.
The biggest of these, here in California at least, will come in the governor’s office, where for the last seven-plus years Gavin Newsom and his merry band of acolytes has reigned o’er the Capitol community.
Prone to taking big swings and sometimes bigger misses, he has at times been a victim of events not of his own making, i.e. the pandemic, fires etc. But no matter where he goes, from the Horseshoe to the Swing Space and increasingly from state to state and points all around the globe, Newsom sucks up most of the oxygen wherever he goes.
And while he has corkscrewed himself into the ground on some of these big cuts, there is no denying he has also made himself into the avatar of California to many folks far and wide.
That’s not necessarily a fault or even a criticism, just an acknowledgement that this governor, much like his two immediate predecessors, Jerry Brown and Arnold Schwarzenegger, will be an incredibly difficult act to follow. Whether either Xavier Becerra or Steve Hilton is up to the task is TBD.
So all of this matters to this year’s Top 100…how? Because even a casual glance at every list prior will indicate that they are dominated by those closely held in the gubernatorial fold. In fact, every single No. 1 on this list since its inception in 2009 has been either the governor’s official chief of staff or, in the case of Anne Gust Brown, the de facto one.
There are reasons for that, which you will read in the bio of the person in this year’s No. 1 slot – surprise! – Newsom Chief of Staff Nathan Barankin.
This year’s race to follow Newsom was one for the ages, with enough candidates to fill four NBA rosters…with a few backups leftover. Massive spending (particularly by one candidate), candidates dropping out, candidates refusing to drop out, and eventually an epic come from behind win that – be honest now – nobody saw coming. Well, almost nobody. (See Silva, Francisco, No. 48.)
But change is coming far beyond the governor’s office. Voter-approved Prop. 50 could alter the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives, but no matter what it has already altered the political landscape here, setting off a game of musical chairs that has seats being vacated and filled all the way down to the local level.
Many of the Capitol community’s aging lions are turning their gaze toward retirement, with a legion of ambitious and energetic young(ish) cubs looking to take their place.
We’ve seen some of that in the Legislature as well, where drama and castle intrigue seems to have become the norm. Leaders come and go – sometimes with a shiv in their back – and new coalitions form, bringing fresh players to power both in an elected and staff capacity. Sometimes a once powerful person just slinks off to obscurity. Others march on, head held high, into new positions where their knowledge and influence make them more influential than ever. (I’m looking right at you, Liz Snow, No. 71.)
There is also a generational shift in full bloom. Many of the Capitol community’s aging lions are turning their gaze toward retirement, with a legion of ambitious and energetic young(ish) cubs looking to take their place. Some of those rising stars have already made this list in recent years – Tony Bui, Liza Negrete, Ramona Prieto come to mind – with more assuredly on the way.
All of this is reflected in this year’s list, and will assuredly be in the future. Because in this world change is the only constant.
With that, we are also thrilled to announce this year’s inductees to the Capitol Weekly Top 100 Hall of Fame: Carmela Coyle, Bob White, Paula Treat, Robbie Hunter and, in memoriam, Allan Zaramberg and Scott Lay.
They join our two previous inductee groups: our inaugural class of Donna Lucas, Gale Kaufman, George Skelton, Aaron Read, and Steve Maviglio, followed by Mike Belote, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, Rex Frazier, Kip Lipper and the late Nancy McFadden.
Before I go I must say a big thank you to every person who shared their time and insights with me as I built this list. I don’t take this responsibility lightly, and I really do appreciate all of you who shared thoughts and perspectives with me. I’m sure you’re all looking forward to no longer getting texts from me at all hours of the day and night asking about this, that and the other. At least until next year.
And as always, my everlasting appreciation to the Capitol Weekly team of Executive Director Tim Foster, Office Manager Melody Gere, our intrepid in-house reporters Brian Joseph and Leah O’Tarrow, Board Chair Molly Dugan and the rest of the Open California board – you are all the best. I have to make the list but you make everything else possible, and I am indebted to you for all of your hard work and collegiality.
See you next year.
Rich Ehisen
Editor, Capitol Weekly
(Click on the names below to see their individual bio page with profile illustration)
We have said it often in this space, but being the governor’s Chief of Staff is probably the hardest job in California politics. It’s true of serving for any governor but even more so for our current gov, who tends to grind his chiefs into dust. After all, there is a reason Barankin is the fourth chief of Gavin Newsom’s tenure. It is also why Nathan Barankin has earned his spot here. If anyone can deal with Gavin Newsom and all the other equally intense personalities in Newsomworld it is the calm, cool and collected Barankin. It is no easy task given that his boss is in daily battle with a federal government that seems hell bent on sticking it to California at every turn. The degree of difficulty is even higher now that Newsom has publicly noted that he is looking to become the really big boss come 2028. And if you think an impending presidential campaign doesn’t add a whole other level of stress and strategy to every single thing going on in Newsomworld…think again. Thankfully, Barankin is no newbie to the national stage. He was once Chief of Staff for Kamala Harris during her time as California Attorney General and again when she was in the U.S. Senate. He followed that with a stint as Senior Advisor for her 2020 presidential campaign. That was its own special kind of circus, and it probably set him up well to handle life under the current big top. Because if anyone can keep the trains running on time while also managing up to an aspiring president, it is Nathan Barankin.
California’s budget is an annual exercise in chaos. There is either a surplus that lawmakers and the governor are foaming at the mouth to get their hands on or a deficit they are doing their best to pretend doesn’t exist – or at least doesn’t apply to their pet projects. There is rarely anything in between, something California Department of Finance Director Joe Stephenshaw knows as well as anyone. As the governor’s top budget advisor, Stephenshaw deals every day with the intense pressure that comes with managing our state’s finances. That intensity was cranked up to eleven this year as the state started out with a budget hole roughly the size of the Mariana Trench. Not fun when you work for an outgoing governor looking to leave things tidy as he starts a presidential campaign. But then one would think Stephenshaw’s years serving as a legislative budget consultant – including as Staff Director for the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee from 2017 to 2022 – prepared him for dealing with the epic fluctuations of California’s tax revenues. After that, dealing with a highly ambitious, often prickly and always demanding boss must seem like a big nothingburger.
We keep thinking Ann Patterson has finally ridden off into the sunset for a well-deserved break from the perpetual stress of the governor’s office. But while she might not be his official Cabinet Secretary or even in the office every day the way she once was, Patterson is most definitely not sitting on a beach with an umbrella drink and a fine summer read. To be honest, it always seemed fanciful to think that Patterson – who is married to Chief of Staff Nathan Barankin – would or could ever really exit stage left from the bubble that is Newsomworld. And there’s a good reason for that. As with so many in the governor’s orbit, she is beyond intelligent, monumentally versatile and exceedingly loyal to the man. She is in fact still operating as the governor’s point person on any number of Big Projects and Negotiations, from the L.A. fire recovery to various ballot measure issues Newsom has strong feelings over. And when she talks, he listens. Not everyone can say that. So whatever title she does or does not hold at the moment, we feel safe saying that Patterson remains one of the most influential people in this administration.
This is a year of big jumps on the Top 100, almost none more so than Christine Aurre, who was No. 25 last year. Her official title is Legislative Affairs Secretary, a thankless job in the best of times but truly difficult in a brutal budget year. But Aurre feels built for this moment. Those who know and work with her on the regular laud her ability to effectively advance her boss’s legislative priorities in a Legislature that often sees him as a frenemy, and which always ferments enough of its own drama to qualify as an honorary Kardashian. It also takes someone who cannot be cowed or intimidated by lawmakers or lobbyists or advocacy groups or unions or anyone else, including her boss. In that sense she is the living embodiment of the iron fist in a velvet glove, often within the same conversation. She has a wealth of political savvy and grit, and is all the while renowned for handling herself with grace, intelligence and charm not always in fashion in politics. Would it surprise us to see her become a future governor’s COS? Nope.
It was always going to be a heavy lift for whoever followed after Ann Patterson as Newsom’s Cabinet Secretary. But Nani Coloretti has shown she is more than up to the task. To be fair, she had proved she could handle big time politics before she ever came to the governor’s office. Coloretti has previously held numerous high level jobs in the nonprofit sphere and in federal government, including as Deputy Director for the Office of Budget and Management under President Joe Biden, meaning she had a big hand in managing a $7 TRILLION federal budget. More than that, she was already a charter member of Newsomworld, having served as his Budget Director when he was mayor of San Francisco. And as we all know, never discount the SF connection when it comes to who has pull with this governor. Coloretti holds a BA in economics and communications from the University of Pennsylvania and an MPP from the University of California, Berkeley.
Jim DeBoo might not be the governor’s Chief of Staff any longer, but his seat in Newsomworld never gets cold. He in fact continues to influence a wide range of policy issues from his consulting firm, DeBoo Strategic Affairs, though not all of it strictly at the behest of his former boss. Although he remains involved in much of the governor’s agenda, DeBoo spent the bulk of his time and energy this year smack in the middle of a variety of campaigns, from Prop. 50 to the No on Tom Steyer independent expenditure. And even in those he doesn’t outright run he is still in the secondary position, including bids to massively overhaul CEQA (ongoing) and the deal cut between Uber and the consumer attorneys. Not surprisingly he has also been a strong influence on many young and upcoming lobbyists and strategists who are now making big waves in the Capitol community, including several on this list. And that will only continue because while Newsom might be leaving, Jim DeBoo isn’t going anywhere. Note: DeBoo is on the board of Open California, which publishes Capitol Weekly.
President and CEO of the California Chamber of Commerce since 2021, Jennifer Barrera is widely recognized and respected as the business community’s quintessential leader. She blends a wealth of political smarts and strategic skills with wonky-in-a-good-way knowledge of policy and its impact on California companies large or small. That last bit requires a deft touch, as California’s business community is hardly a monolith. She is adept at threading the needle on complex high-stakes issues, both in policy terms and satisfying a diverse and demanding membership. And she has needed every bit of skill this election year, which for the Chamber has featured not only the usual legislative battles over regulations and labor laws, etc., but also being elbows deep in a wide range of ballot measures. In short, whether it is under the Capitol dome or at the ballot box, Barrera and the Chamber are primed to battle against anything they see as being bad for business. Not that she is intractable, because that just isn’t so. For instance, the Chamber this year endorsed Xavier Becerra for governor – the first time the organization has endorsed a Democrat for the job.
It’s fair to say SEIU California Executive Director Tia Orr has spent much of the last year playing defense. But then who hasn’t been? That’s what happens during lean budget times exacerbated by massive impending federal budget cuts that promise to make 2027 even leaner yet. But while 750,000-member SEIU didn’t have another Hot Labor Summer, it did manage to avoid losing the many gains it has made in recent, more financially stable times. And Orr’s leadership and political savvy are a big reason why. She is a renowned relationship builder, a keen strategist and a tireless leader who commands respect from friend and foe alike. Big Labor is always a huge player in California politics, and Orr is as influential and impactful as any labor leader could be. Case in point – her union spent big bucks and utilized thousands of union foot soldiers in the successful effort to pass Prop. 50, and is already gearing up for a similar campaign on behalf of union-friendly candidates in November. She is not the only union chief with sway in the Capitol, but Orr is the most impactful.
Teri Holoman’s political influence goes way beyond her work as Associate Executive Director of the 310,000-member California Teachers Association, always one of the most powerful organizations in Sacramento. She helps craft the organization’s fundraising, independent expenditures, voter outreach and, most of all, the foot soldier campaigns that drive voters to the polls. It is a power position for sure, but hard as it might be to believe it reflects only a sliver of the influence Holoman has in California politics. Because Holoman’s real superpower is building relationships with and earning the trust of the state’s most powerful players on both sides of the aisle, from Gavin Newsom to local and state officials, business leaders and most definitely aspiring gubernatorial candidates. She also has great influence with the other unions and CTA partners. Holoman may be loath to ever be in the spotlight herself, but all of the aforementioned powerful and wannabe-powerful people who crave that kind of juice know and respect her. Note: Holoman is a board member of Open California, the nonprofit publisher of Capitol Weekly.
Mention Bob Hertzberg to anyone in the Capitol and two things will usually come up: his penchant for doling out hugs and his ubiquitousness in almost every major Capitol negotiation going on for the last several years. From CEQA reform to AI regulation to his own housing bond initiative (on the ballot this year), to fill-in-the-blank, if there is a deal going down Hertzberg is probably right in the middle of it. In fact, the shorter list might be the deals he hasn’t helped broker. He has the ear of every legislative leader and wannabe leader, the business community, Big Labor, energy advocates, environmental groups and the governor’s office (Christine Aurre, No. 4 on this list, was his Legislative Director for three years when he was Senate Majority Leader). He is widely regarded as being a pragmatic, sensible voice of reason and unapologetic truth-teller, especially toward those who prefer only hearing what they want to hear. The bottom line is he gets things done. Hertzberg previously served in both the Senate, where he was Majority Leader, and the Assembly, where he was Speaker.
As Secretary of Natural Resources Crowfoot is tasked with overseeing one of Gavin Newsom’s top priorities, dealing with climate change. But his responsibilities go well beyond that. He oversees 25,000 state employees across 26 departments, including Water Resources, Cal Fire and Fish and Wildlife. In plain terms, if it has to do with forests, rivers, the coastline, wildlife (wolves anyone?) or water supply, Crowfoot probably has a hand it its management. But Crowfoot’s real power is being one of his boss’s most trusted advisors well beyond just all things environmental.
Big or small, no matter the issue Crowfoot has Newsom’s trust, which translates to a lot of influence on the eighth floor of the Swing Space. Crowfoot previously served as Gov. Jerry Brown’s Deputy Cabinet Secretary and Senior Advisor before joining the Newsom administration. He has also led the non-profit Water Foundation and served as the West Coast regional director for the Environmental Defense Fund.
The Legal Secretary is always a key position with any governor, but never more than in recent years when the relationship between California and the Trump administration feels more like open warfare than standard federalism. When Gavin Newsom needs legal advice in countering the president – like when the feds launch an investigation into the First Partner’s financial dealings, for instance – Sapp is his first call. Beyond dueling with Trump, Sapp oversees any litigation involving Newsom or the state and serves up the necessary words when the governor needs to speak in lawyer to someone to get his point across. Sapp also proffers legal guidance to other executive branch agencies, oversees potential pardons, commutations and parole decisions. He has been with the governor’s office since 2019, and previous to that was an in-house lawyer for the California Department of Education and the ACLU of Southern California. He received a BA in public policy and linguistics from Duke and his JD from the Stanford University School of Law.
Myers’ official titles are Senior Advisor to Gavin Newsom and Director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz). But she is so much more than that around Newsomworld. The gravitas she has built from her time on the world’s biggest stages – including being the first female White House Press Secretary (under Bill Clinton) – and later as a bestselling author and Hollywood executive, has given her deep influence with the governor. That has become more important than ever as Newsom seeks to play up the positives of California’s business climate before he leaves office and prepares for an anticipated presidential campaign. In that regard, GO-Biz has been tasked with luring more foreign investment to California as well as promoting our state around the country. Those efforts don’t always sit well with lawmakers who question GO-Biz spending budget dollars on campaigns they feel might benefit her boss more than the state’s business climate, but being a Newsom favorite means never having to say you’re sorry. Or much of anything at all, at least to lawmakers.
Some folks fold in the face of adversity; others fight. Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California CEO and President Jodi Hicks is definitely a fighter. Since taking the helm in 2019, Hicks has led the charge for PPAC’s roughly 1 million patients, 80 percent of whom are low-income. On that front, the last few years have been brutal, and with more federal funding cuts coming from Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, it promises to get worse before it gets better. But if she is cowed by the challenge before her, it never shows. Hicks led an effort this year in the Capitol that resulted in lawmakers committing $90 million to support PPAC’s mission. Hicks was a prominent player in the Capitol community long before coming to PPAC, and she has continued to build powerful relationships in just about every corner of the political world, both here and in Washington D.C. She knows how to build coalitions, can raise a lot of money and her endorsement truly matters to Democratic office holders and seekers. Note: She is a board member with Open California, which publishes Capitol Weekly.
By definition, the leader of a group the size of the California Federation of Labor Unions – a coalition of 1,300 unions representing approximately 2.3 million members – has plenty of power before they ever step through the door. But no job title alone could ever really capture the oomph Gonzalez brings to the California Capitol. She is a fierce and very vocal advocate for working people and is one of the rare Big Labor leaders who work as much in the public eye as behind the scenes. She helps to shape labor strategy and policy, and has the connections in and out of the Capitol to move that agenda forward. Her big political battles this year have centered on prodding lawmakers and Gov. Newsom to more greatly regulate artificial intelligence and devout support for the proposed billionaire tax heading to the ballot in November. The latter has her at odds with Newsom, but then that relationship has always been shaky at best. And the blunt and occasionally combative Gonzalez relies less on relationship building than other labor leaders anyway.
As long as Robert Rivas is Assembly Speaker his brother Rick will be somewhere on this list. Rick officially is California Vice President of the American Beverage Association, but around the Assembly he is better known as “Younger Brother of Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas.” It isn’t a joke. The younger Rivas is acknowledged for having a stellar political acumen and ample political savvy as well as an almost encyclopedic knowledge of campaigns. That has long made him the Speaker’s closest confidant and top political strategist, and he has been granted a heavy hand in just about everything the Speaker is doing. Critics have long contended it has been and remains too heavy of a hand. Whether or not Rick really does have some kind of Svengali sway over his brother, until it hurts the Speaker things are unlikely to change. Alas, there is potential trouble afoot; both have been named in a lawsuit filed by former Press Secretary Cynthia Moreno accusing the brothers of corruption and other illegal activities. They deny the allegations and the case has now been moved to federal court, with the first hearing set to commence in October.
Jamie Callahan’s official title in the governor’s office is Deputy Chief of Staff. He also recently appointed her Senior Counselor on Infrastructure. So to say her hands are full is an understatement. It is also an indication of how valuable Callahan is to the governor, particularly as he pushes to get as much of his agenda done as possible before leaving office. In that regard Callahan is a leading voice on all things regulatory, and she oversees a number of agenda items, including policies focused on climate change and business and economic development. Her gravitas with Newsom is interesting in that unlike so many others with his ear, she is a fairly recent addition to the team rather than another of his all-the-way-back-to-SF crew. She was also a Dana Williamson hire, so it might have been understandable if Newsom had quietly eased Callahan out the door when Williamson’s troubles became public. But if anything, she is more important and has even more responsibility and influence now than ever. Callahan has previously held high level positions with Gov. Jerry Brown and former CARB chief Liane Randolph.
Axiom Advisors co-founder Cassie Gilson is easily one of the most effective lobbyists in Sacramento. But as with so many on this list, her sway goes well beyond the confines of a job title. In less than a decade Gilson, with partners Jason Kinney (No. 30 on this list) and Kevin Schmidt, has taken Axiom from startup to one of the top grossing lobbying firms in the Capitol. Gilson has become the Capitol’s version of EF Hutton – when she speaks, people listen. And there is good reason for that. She is passionate about environmental issues, but is deeply grounded in so many others roiling the Capitol these days, particularly AI, land use, housing and clean energy. But a lot of lobbyists are smart and experienced. Gilson’s superpower is her approach – calmness, pragmatism, strategic thinking and a balanced worldview that has helped her build foundational relationships with folks on both sides of the aisle. The business community trusts her, the enviros trust her and, well, you get it. Oh, and it is worth nothing that Gilson is still the only female managing partner among the top five Capitol consulting firms.
When it comes to ballot measure campaigns Brandon Castillo is the Capitol community’s version of Ghostbusters because he is definitely who you gonna call. For decades now Castillo has been one of the folks that big-bucks interests bring on to get their high-stakes measures across the finish line. And they don’t do it because he looks snazzy in a suit and tie. They call Castillo for one primary reason – he wins. A lot. Like almost always. In recent years he has been instrumental in measures that made app-based rideshare drivers independent contractors and ensured a tax on managed healthcare insurance providers became permanent, two of the highest profile campaigns in recent memory. This year he has been at the helm of measures to implement even more CEQA reforms and a mandate for federally qualified health centers to spend 90 percent of their revenue on direct patient care onto the ballot, and in getting a few others (healthcare executive compensation and a tax transparency measure) off the ballot. Nobody ever wins them all, but Castillo comes close enough.
Sisney is the Assembly’s top budget advisor and has been so since 2018. In that role he provides the counsel that helps lawmakers through the boom and bust cycle of California’s tax revenue gathering system. That alone would earn him a spot in the Top 100. But Sisney’s #CABudget newsletter on Substack is also essential reading for anyone trying to understand in layman’s terms our Byzantine budgeting system. It would be so even if it was a paid subscription publication, but Sisney does it in his spare time and, get this, he doesn’t even charge for it! Not that we cheapo scribes would pay for it, but still. I guess he probably makes a good living educating lawmakers about the arcane details of trailer bills and budget stabilization funds and Prop 98 requirements and….oops, sorry… I nodded off there for a moment even thinking about all that stuff. But while I’m not cut out for these things, thankfully he is. He and Chris Woods, his counterpart in the Senate, are in fact indispensable and thus a pair of the most influential wonks around.
There are not a lot of budget wizards in the Capitol but Senate budget guru Chris Woods is most definitely one. Woods has had major a role in the creation of more state budgets than the governor and all of the legislative leaders combined. For the last 25 springs and summers (16 in the Assembly and now nine in the Senate) Woods has shown lawmakers the way to the budget light, usually with them kicking and screaming all the while. The yowling has been particularly bad these last few years of budget deficits, some of it coming from the governor’s office as he looks for ways to make himself look good on the way out the door. But Woods seems to be preternaturally immune to such bleating and bawling as he grinds out the numbers that make and break careers. We love that about him. In addition to his decades in the Capitol Woods also has a bachelor’s in American Studies and a law degree, both from UC Davis.
No. 22 Kristin Bertolina Faust
Jesse Unruh once said money is the mother’s milk of politics. Nobody knowns that better than Kristin Bertolina Faust, who is the fundraiser to California’s political stars. She founded BB&G, a Sacramento-based fundraising and political consulting firm in 1999, and alongside her colleagues Angie Georgoulias and Rhianon See-Barnato has since guided it into becoming the go-to fundraising firm for almost every major Dem heavyweight. Her reach extends well beyond California too – she was co-chair of the fundraising team that helped Kamala Harris raise a record $1 billion in just over 100 days during the 2024 presidential campaign. But even that doesn’t begin to tell her story. Bertolina Faust also manages campaigns (see Padilla, Alex) and consults for many more, almost exclusively on the long-term fundraising side of it all. In addition to Harris and Padilla, she is also Gov. Gavin Newsom’s top cash collector, helping him raise megabucks to fend off a recall campaign and get Prop. 50 over the finish line.
In recent years we have combined Smith on this list with colleagues Juan Rodriguez and Sean Clegg under their company moniker, Bearstar Strategies. It was a cop out, but we’ve come to our senses. Because as formidable as they are as a trio under the Bearstar umbrella, Smith was already an all-star political consultant practically before his partners were born. He is a master strategist and opposition researcher who has guided a litany of state and national campaigns, helping to elect governors (Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom), U.S. Senators (Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Kamala Harris) and mayors (Ed Lee, Antonio Villaraigosa), and that is just the California list. And he was of course involved in the successful Prop. 50 campaign. His input also doesn’t end on election night – he remains a long term strategist for many of his clients, including Newsom. He was also one of many folks on this list who initially were in Camp Swalwell, but we said he was good, not infallible.
Clegg is a founding partner in Bearstar (then SCN) and one of the few folks out there who can rival Ace Smith as a political consultant. His client list is as notable as any – Newsom, Harris, Padilla, Boxer, Becerra, yada, yada, yada – and he has handled more ballot measures and issue campaigns than probably even he can recall. His specialty is media strategy, from TV to direct mail, but his political acumen is far broader than that. He continues to advise the Newsom folks, has served as an advisor and Deputy Mayor to former LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and worked as a Senate staffer in D.C.. Alas, he too has a major biff on the record this year. As part of Bearstar, Clegg too was initially on board with Swalwell when the former congressman was flying high. But then, so were a lot of smart people.
Rodriguez, also a Bearstar partner, has been on a meteoric rise for the last several years. He has worked inside government for Kamala Harris and Antonio Villaraigosa, but made his real bones as a consultant and campaign strategist for both politicians and issue campaigns. In 2021 he was named the American Association of Political Consultants “Campaign Manager of the Year” for his work heading up Newsom’s successful effort against the recall, and in more recent times he has been one of the lead dogs on the successful Prop. 50 campaign among many others. And in keeping with pointing out a few failures along the way, Rodriguez was the campaign manager for Harris’s failed 2020 presidential campaign and was working on a Swalwell IE when that ship went down in flames. Given how folks in the Capitol community view him, those missteps will mean…checks notes….absolutely nothing going forward.
If a bill or a regulation or a ballot initiative or a strong breeze would impact healthcare in general, and physicians in particular, the 50,000-member strong California Medical Association and its CEO Dustin Corcoran are going to be involved. Corcoran joined the CMA government affairs shop in 1998, learning the game at the knee of legendary CMA lobbyist Steve Thompson. He was clearly a sponge because by 2010 Corcoran was CEO. Since then he has become of the most influential people in the Capitol community, with a CMA endorsement being one of the most sought after by aspiring office seekers. He is a proven coalition builder and a keen strategist himself, particularly in either winning statewide ballot initiatives the CMA favors or defeating those they don’t. That will be tested again this November when the billionaire tax goes before voters, an initiative Corcoran and CMA strongly oppose. And if you really want to know his influence, look at how many people around the Capitol community he mentored on their way up. In a world of big players, Dustin Corcoran is yuuuuuge.
Every ship needs a captain and in the California Senate it is Erika Contreras. Yes, it is. No, it is not the pro Tem. Because elected folks don’t make the trains run on time. They don’t set rules for how the body will operate. They don’t deal with personnel and…. you get it. With that in mind it is not absurd to call Erika Contreras perhaps the most important unelected person in the California Legislature. As the nonpartisan chief administrator and parliamentarian of the upper chamber, she oversees all those things we said at the top of this paragraph. In fact, she controls every aspect of how the institution actually functions, from human resources and accounting to contracts and legal issues to operations and facilities both in Sacramento and in nearly 70 district office spaces. She is also head of the 150 folks who staff the Senate Rules Committee, perhaps the most powerful in the body. She even gets to tell TV reporters where they can and can’t have their cameras. I mean, seriously, this woman has power!
Contreras’s counterpart in the Assembly, Lia Lopez is similarly invaluable to those inside the Legislative machine. As the Chief Administrative Officer for the Assembly Rules Committee, Lopez oversees all the Assembly’s administrative duties, which means she is the one tasked with ensuring the business of the chamber gets done correctly and on time, from personnel to procurement. And yes, that also includes the Legislature’s role in the Capitol Annex Project. She also is the one responsible for making sure bills go to the right committees, which is actually a pretty big deal. And on occasion when there is scuffling between the two legislative chambers, it is Lopez who keeps the children from throwing sand in each other’s faces. Lopez is also sure to be a key figure if and when legislative staff begin the unionization process. It was supposed to happen this year but you might have heard we’re in an election cycle and everyone is just a little distracted right now. But when that time comes Lopez is sure to be in the middle of how it all plays out.
Joseph Cruz will never be one of those folks who searches for the spotlight. The Executive Director of the California State Council of Laborers, the largest construction trade union in the state, Cruz lives by the Teddy Roosevelt mantra of “speak softly and carry a big stick.” For Cruz, that stick is the 75,000 construction workers his union counts as members. He didn’t just skydive into the role either. Cruz previously spent eleven years as Executive Director for the California Alliance for Jobs (over 100,000 construction workers & 5,000 contractors). From High Speed Rail & Prop 1A to numerous labor and management campaigns, Cruz has been at the forefront as a trusted leader on infrastructure, public finance, regulation and legislation. This year he was also one of Xavier Becerra’s biggest supporters, helping the Democratic gubernatorial nominee raise money and working tirelessly on his behalf to get other Big Labor groups behind him as well. And you know that is going to play well for his union should Becerra become California’s next governor.
We’ve heard Jason Kinney called a “professional friend,” a dig at Kinney’s close ties with Gov. Gavin Newsom, which to some degree is fair. After all, Kinney and the Gav have been bros for decades now. But let’s get real: you’ve read over and over in these pages about the power of relationship building in the Capitol, and Kinney is about as good at that as there is. He left his “Boy Wonder” days behind him a long time ago, and what’s left now is a man who isn’t just tight with Gavin Newsom – Kinney is tight with almost every Dem and half the Reeps in California. And if you think that doesn’t make him influential then you simply are not paying attention. Kinney is a partner (with Cassie Gilson, No. 18 on your scorecard) at Axiom Advisors, which in just seven years has grown from a start-up to being one of the top two or three grossing consulting/lobbying firms in California. When it comes to friendship, Kinney has definitely gone pro.
Dave Regan has been the head of the 120,000-member SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West union since 2011. In that time he has crafted a reputation as a no-holds-barred fighter for his members no matter how much it might cause friction – the kindest way we can put it – with other unions and the healthcare industry itself. So maybe it should not have been a surprise last year when Regan launched the billionaire tax ballot initiative, a measure that has put him at extreme odds with not only Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders but much of the rest of Big Labor, who oppose the measure. For months those forces courted and cajoled Regan and the initiative’s supporters to pull the measure off the ballot. That didn’t happen so now it will be up to voters. Nobody knows what will happen in November, but we know for sure that a lot of money is going to be spent before then. And win or lose, Regan is not getting Christmas cards from many of his labor colleagues this year.
We’re pretty sure Attorney General Rob Bonta’s Chief of Staff Viviana Becerra doesn’t wear a blue bodysuit with a big S across the chest. But then again, maybe she does. The sheer totality of Becerra’s daily responsibilities is staggering: she oversees numerous offices within the Department of Justice, including Communications, Native American Affairs, External Affairs, Community Awareness, Response, and Engagement, and Legislative Affairs. As if that isn’t enough, she is also Bonta’s Senior Policy Advisor, having been with him since his days in the Legislature. She also serves as the AG’s liaison to the governor’s office. In short, she is directly involved in virtually everything he does, and Bonta trusts her implicitly. A Sacramento native, born to Mexican immigrants, Becerra holds a bachelor’s in political science from UC Santa Barbara. And no, she is not related to Xavier Becerra.
Jason Elliott is kind of like Ann Patterson. Like her, he is one of Gavin Newsom’s longest-affiliated and most trusted allies and consultants. And like Ann, no matter how many times he looks to leave the inner workings of Newsomworld behind he just can’t seem to really get away. It’s understandable because Elliott has been working alongside Newsom since the governor’s mayoral days in SF, and there are not very many folks Newsom trusts more regardless of the issue. During his time in Newsomworld, Elliott was one of several members of the governor’s Swiss army knife brigade, by title the Deputy Chief of Staff but really Newsom’s eyes and ears on everything from housing and the budget to artificial intelligence, land use and political campaigns. He even helped write Newsom’s speeches. He left to start his own consulting firm in 2024, but his role advising Newsom has never stopped. And in May Newsom named Elliott to the California High Speed Rail Authority board of directors. Elliott also previously served as Chief of Staff to San Francisco Mayors Ed Lee and London Breed.
There is not a more challenging person to assess for this list than the self-described First Partner. On the one hand, it could be argued that Siebel Newsom, much like Maria Shriver and Anne Gust Brown before her, elevated the role of a gubernatorial spouse from one once seen as mostly supportive or ceremonial to one of political and policy importance. Along those lines, the former documentary filmmaker has spearheaded numerous projects of note, with a focus on gender equity and online child safety. And of course she is always guaranteed to have the final word with him on those and any other issues she cares about. But does that carry over to the myriad of other issues on Gavin Newsom’s agenda? It is hard to imagine he would not listen to her opinion regardless of the subject, but only they know for sure how much. But with her having her own agenda to pursue, it is also hard to imagine her getting into the weeds with him on policy the way his actual advisors do.
The founder and CEO of Spectrum Campaigns, Wigglesworth has been a major part of dozens of winning statewide ballot measures since 2010. This year’s big effort has been leading the Building a Better California campaign, a Big Tech-backed nonprofit aimed at bolstering pro-business and pro-tech candidates statewide as well as opposing the billionaire tax proposed by SEIU-UHW honcho Dave Regan. Building a Better California is comprised of many of the biggest names – and deepest pockets – in Silicon Valley, including folks like Google co-founder Sergey Brin and crypto billionaire Chris Larsen. The results have been mixed, and it is fair to question how long this sudden interest by the Silicon Valley billionaire class into statewide California politics will last. But we do know this – those folks will be laying out a lot of money to sway voters their way in November, and they are not the kind of folks to do that as anything but a long-term investment. If so, the odds are very good of them leaning on folks like Wigglesworth for the foreseeable future.
We have more than a dozen initiatives on the ballot this year and it is only a rumor that Kurt Oneto is working for or against all of them. It’s really maybe half. Hold on – that’s a joke. But seriously, as the leader of Nielsen Merksamer’s government law section there are few in Sacramento or anywhere else who know that world better than Oneto. A recognized expert in initiative and referenda law, he specializes in statewide ballot measures, having served as counsel and legal strategist to approximately 100 measures in California and other states over the last 20 years. He was instrumental in defending Prop. 22, the voter-approved ballot measure that allows gig companies to classify their drivers as independent contractors. SEIU California challenged it, but the California Supreme Court upheld the law, a ruling that set a national precedent for how all gig works are classified by employers. He was also involved in this year’s battle between Uber and the Consumer Attorneys of California over the company’s liability in certain situations, helping to pull competing measures off the ballot.
He might look like a high school kid who has wandered into the Capitol by mistake, but the perpetually youthful Brokaw, a Principal at The Media Company, is approaching grizzled veteran status. And while Brokaw might not hold any official titles in state government, he most definitely holds more sway than many who do. A Democratic strategist and consultant, Brokaw is one of the most well-connected players in California politics. He is a longtime confidant and advisor to Gavin Newsom, serving as Senior Advisor on all three of Newsom’s successful gubernatorial campaigns – 2018, the 2021 recall and the gov’s 2022 re-election effort – and remains someone who always has a place at the gubernatorial table. When not helping steer the Newsom ship he has found time to help get Kamala Harris elected as California Attorney General and to the U.S. Senate, and has also run numerous successful ballot measures and local election campaigns all over California. His big one for this year – the opposition to the billionaire tax voters will decide in November. Note: Brokaw serves on the board of Open California, the publisher of Capitol Weekly.
Also a Principal at The Media Company, Newman has been a top strategist and advisor to a Who’s Who of California politicians for years. When he’s not talking pols in or out of doing something (or being the spokesperson trying to explain away California A.G. Rob Bonta spending almost $500K on a legal bills from a federal bribery investigation), he has also been a key figure in any number of statewide ballot measure campaigns. This year, like seemingly every political consultant in Sacramento, he is also working on the proposed billionaire tax initiative. (The No side.) He and business partner Brian Brokaw have also been the point folks on some high profile Bay Area matters, including raising money for Daniel Lurie’s successful mayoral campaign and the California Forever project, another tech billionaire effort, this time to turn thousands of acres of Solano County farmland into a new tech-centric city. And another Bay Area Big Tech client – OpenAI – brought them on to help craft the company a better public image. Fun fact: Newman’s bio says he once worked as a fish slimer. Somehow this must be relevant.
Paul Mitchell, have yourself a year! The Vice President of Political Data, Inc., aka PDI, and the owner of Redistricting Partners, Mitchell’s stock in trade has long been tracking redistricting efforts around the country and helping anxious pols better understand the enormous wealth of information out there. In that regard it made total sense that he would be the one entrusted to create the new maps Dems put together in their effort to counter Donald Trump’s plan to gain more GOP seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. But then came his Top Two Primary Simulator tool, which instantly amplified the possibility of Dems being shut out of the November gubernatorial race to the point it became a daily obsession both in and out of California political circles. (Ask Rusty Hicks how much sleep he lost over that one!) That didn’t happen of course, but even the possibility it could have has led to an effort to repeal the state’s top two jungle primary. Note: He is a regular contributor to Capitol Weekly and is married to Open California board member Jodi Hicks (No. 14).
Ramona “Monie” Prieto was once one of the Capitol’s young up and comers whom most folks couldn’t pick out of a crowd of two. Well, she’s still young but you can bet everyone around here knows her now. As the rideshare giant Uber’s Senior Director of Public Policy & Communications for its Western Region, Prieto controls the company’s independent expenditures through the Uber Innovation Fund, which is filled with the proverbial (and maybe literal) ton of money for her to use in the pursuit of promoting the company’s goals. That could be in support of pro-business Dems running for office or it could be in waging big money ballot measure battles with Uber’s sworn enemies, Big Labor and the Consumer Attorneys of California. Or it could be all of the above. Whip smart and driven, Prieto is also adept at building coalitions (there it is again!) that give her company even more clout whenever they decide to weigh in on an issue – which is more and more often these days, and will likely continue into the foreseeable future.
Negrete was on this list two years ago and then inexplicably left off last year. Well, we won’t make that mistake again. As the head of the California Association of Realtors political action committee and the organization’s top political strategist, she has more than earned a regular spot here. The CAR has 200,000 members, which is impressive, but Negrete has never been satisfied to rely solely on them to push the organization’s agenda. She is also blessed with everything a person in her situation needs to have to be successful – a brilliant political mind, an ability and willingness to partner with others to get things done and a massive fiscal war chest that means she gets a seat at any table she wants. These days CAR will have more influence on legislative and congressional races and ballot measures than at any time in their history, and Negrete is a big reason why.
There was a time when the California Apartment Association was considered a lesser Capitol player. Not any longer, and that is in great part due to Tony Bui, the group’s Senior Vice President of State Public Affairs. Bui has a take no prisoners style that doesn’t always sit well with others, but we doubt he’s losing any sleep over it because he’s also known as one of the most effective lobbyists in the building. His combination of legislative expertise, campaign experience, long-standing relationships and control over a major political operation makes him a significant player whenever housing issues come up in the Legislature or are on the statewide ballot. He is also widely respected for his ability to forge partnerships with other likeminded housing advocates. As the manager of CAA’s campaign coffers, he is not afraid to spend as much as necessary to squelch ballot measures and legislation it doesn’t like. The bottom line: when it comes to housing issues, Bui has zero trouble getting meetings with anyone and everyone he wants.
A lot of folks claimed credit for last year’s CEQA reform, the first major changes in the law’s history. But insiders give copious credit to Steve Wertheim, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks’ top advisor on housing issues. Wertheim was the person tasked with brokering high-level negotiations between a full suite of stakeholders, including the governor, legislative leaders, construction unions, labor unions, environmental groups, pro-business groups, tribal interests, YIMBYs, NIMBYs and probably a few more we’ve left out. The result was a reform he had significant influence over, and that success has most definitely carried over to this year as well. These days, no housing measure Wicks is involved in happens without Wertheim also being there. He is an integral part of his boss’s new Assembly Select Committee on Housing Construction Innovation, which is exploring all kinds of regulatory changes that could have an even bigger impact on reducing California’s vexing housing shortage. Previous to his time in the Capitol he spent a dozen years as a planner for the city of San Francisco, which perhaps explains how he was prepared to take on this level of stress.
We have for years leaned into having the California Air Resources Board Chair on this list, which isn’t unreasonable. But when you think about who actually moves policy ideas into regulation and who guides the day to day working of close to 2,000 employees while managing a $2.7 billion budget, it’s not the Chair you’re thinking of. That would be Executive Officer Steven Cliff, easily one of the most powerful and influential unelected people in California government. There isn’t a policy area in CARB’s purview he doesn’t oversee, including vehicle emissions standards and the state’s cap-and-invest carbon reduction program. He is also the one who negotiates with the numerous entities seeking to influence CARB, including increasingly revenue-hungry state lawmakers and an even more rapacious and inconsistent federal government. He is known as a pragmatic, highly intelligent and wryly funny leader and staunch defender of California’s carbon reduction mission. Cliff is a former Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration under President Joe Biden. He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of San Diego.
Don’t call it a comeback. But with respect to LL Cool J, what else would you call it? One of ten folks returning to the list after some time away, one-time SEIU Executive Director Alma Hernandez has reinvented herself as one of the top campaign consultants in the Capitol ecosphere. Always a respected coalition builder, she is considered by many to also be a brilliant strategist and negotiator. After starting Experta Strategies LLC in 2023, she quickly leveraged her well known political acumen and trove of solid relationships in the Capitol to earn a pivotal role in a handful of successful election campaigns. She followed up with leading roles in some of this year’s most competitive ballot measure campaigns. Those talents were put to good use as she had a huge role in getting competing Uber ballot measures off the November ballot, and is poised to remain a powerful background player for years to come. A UC Berkeley graduate with degrees in political science and rhetoric, Hernandez also previously spent five years as a legislative staffer.
Scott is one of the most respected healthcare lobbyists in the Capitol. As the head of the California Hospital Association’s government affairs team, she sets CHA’s legislative agenda, negotiates deals with lawmakers and the governor and advises healthcare honchos around the state. With hospitals in constant fiscal torpor, the negotiations are never ending. That will only get worse as the impacts from massive federal healthcare spending reductions go into effect next year, so her work will always be cut out for her. But her track record is also pretty good. In recent years she has done yeoman’s work in helping hospitals avoid major Medi-Cal spending reductions, always a bone to be chewed in bad budget times. She is also widely respected for being able to bring disparate hospital and healthcare groups together on policy issues, which at times must feel like trying to reunite the Red Sea. But somehow she gets it done.
Izzy Gardon is not your typical gubernatorial Communications Director. Oh, he has all the usual skills the position demands: He is whip smart, a solid messaging tactician and understands the power of the internet better than just about anyone. It is that last front where Gardon stands out. Like Newsom, Gardon embraces all things digital. Also like Newsom, Gardon believes the best defense is a good offense, especially when it comes to hitting back at anyone – political opponents, media, etc. – he perceives as taking potshots at his boss. Along with Digital Director Camille Zapata and Newsom himself, Gardon crafted and oversees the aggressive social media campaign that so directly mocks Donald Trump’s own self-aggrandizing and attacking style. Critics hate it, calling the campaign immature, undignified and unbecoming of a California governor and likely presidential candidate. To which Gardon laughs because it’s pretty clear the “meme campaign” helped his boss overcome his own disastrous podcast idea and reestablish Newsom’s national reputation as a devout Trump antagonist. If (AKA when) Newsom hits the presidential campaign trail, you can bet Gardon will be with him.
There was exactly one major health organization this year that endorsed Xavier Becerra early in the campaign – the California Primary Care Association, led by president and CEO Francisco Silva. And it didn’t end there. Silva and Joe Cruz (No. 29 on this list) put together an independent expenditure campaign that produced enough cash for the Becerra campaign to keep going at a time when that prospect wasn’t looking good. Silva is also deeply involved in the opposition campaign against a pair of Dave Regan (No. 31) measures – the billionaire tax and another targeting SEIU-UHW measure targeting federally qualified health centers. That tracks because Silva leads a group that represents approximately 1,300 community health centers that serve over seven million mostly low-income Californians every year. It’s not a great time to be in that position given the magnitude of federal healthcare spending cuts that are due to hit California next year. But Silva’s vast network of relationships in the Capitol paid off this year as CPCA, in spite of California’s massive budget issues, got 100% of its funding request. Not many others can say the same.
There are behind the scenes players and then there are behind the scenes players like Steve O’Mara, Chief of Staff to Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas. It’s unlikely Rivas listens to anyone more than his brother Rick (No. 16 on this list) but O’Mara is a close second. That’s a good thing because with the steady inflow of new members – some of whom can be as needy as a newborn – someone other than his brother needs to be a buffer between them and the Speaker. On that front, O’Mara is another respected coalition builder both in the Speaker’s office and throughout the Democratic Caucus, and it is a given that the big things all eventually go through O’Mara before they get to Rivas. (Robert, that is.) While the Speaker’s office can at times seem like the Titanic approaching an iceberg, O’Mara is lauded for always being the calm, cool and collected helmsman that gets this ship into dock safely.
On the surface Chris Hannan doesn’t seem like the type to lead an often-feisty group like the State Building and Construction Trades Council. Hannan looks more like a high school chemistry teacher than a hardened union leader. But you underestimate him at your own peril because Hannan is hardly Walter White before he broke bad. SBCTC has long been one of the biggest players in California housing policy (see Robbie Hunter, Top 100 Hall of Fame, Class of 2026), and Hannan is the guy who leads the way. And they most certainly cut a wide path; SBCTC is the largest construction trade council in the nation, representing half a million members in more than a dozen crafts, including 70,000 apprentices. He took the helm in 2023 and has since been instrumental in efforts to reform CEQA as well as driving a handful of other major infrastructure projects in ways that protected labor interests, something some of his labor counterparts cannot say. Hannan previously spent years leading the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council, which clearly prepared him for battles in Sacramento.
In all of California history, only six people have served as the independent, nonpartisan Legislative Analyst, whose analysis of the state’s fiscal matters is considered the gold standard by both major parties. It is not an easy job, nor is it one for the weak of heart. Petek oversees a staff of more than 40 analysts who project fiscal problems in advance and call out the governor for overly optimistic budget projections. While Petek has no voting power or implementation ability, he does carry significant influence with the governor, lawmakers and anyone else involved in the state’s financial management. He is widely respected as a cautious, data-driven analyst unafraid to speak truth to power. His mantra of late has been for lawmakers and the governor to more fully address the state’s ongoing structural budget deficit. Like his predecessors, Petek shuns the limelight, keeping to a just-the-facts approach that bolsters his credibility in the fame-seeking culture of the Capitol. Prior to the LAO he two spent almost decades at S&P Global Ratings, where he was the lead Credit Analyst covering California’s finances.
Whoever sits in this role would have a lot of political clout around the Capitol because – spoiler alert – AT&T has a lot of money and is not afraid to use it. And AT&T is not your great grandfather’s phone company. These days telecommunications is still about phone service, but it also encompasses everything from broadband and AI to cybersecurity. So if the company would be influential anyway, why is Susan Santana on this list? Because she is not just anybody. Santana is a master at navigating the Capitol’s treacherous partisan waters, a critical skill considering that any communications legislation or proposed regulation is bound to impact her company. And real talk here – telecoms are rarely seen as the good guys in the Capitol. Case in point – AT&T finally winning a yearslong brawl with California regulators to win the right to cut off landline service to 184,000 rural users. A legal battle is still pending over so we’ll see if it sticks, but rest assured that Santana will be in the middle of whatever happens from here.
There are a number of pro-business groups out there, but perhaps only the Cal Chamber has the same level of influence held by the California Business Roundtable, the nonprofit research and advocacy group comprised of senior executives from major employers throughout the state. That is due in great part to the fact it represents a wide range of the state’s top industry leaders and employers. But the even bigger factor is the organization’s longtime leader, Rob Lapsley. CBRT President since 2011, Lapsley has tremendous institutional knowledge and great political instincts with an innate ability to bring diverse players together into cohesive coalitions. He is a pragmatist with vision that tends toward the long term, and he knows how to take a win when one is there for the taking. That’s no easy feat in a place hardly known for being pro-business. The CBRT has also become an even bigger player in statewide ballot measures under his leadership, and this year will be no different.
Toks Omishakin is a very low profile person in a very high profile job. As Secretary of the California State Transportation Agency, he oversees eight state departments, boards and agencies totaling over 42,000 employees and manages a budget in excess of $30 billion annually. Those entities include CalTrans, DMV, CHP, the High Speed Rail Authority and the California Transportation Commission, which collectively impact just about every policy debate in the Capitol, from housing to environment. He’s a bit like Savoir-Fare – he’s everywhere! (Yes, that’s how the character is spelled and yes we are showing our age with that reference.) But Omishakin is no cartoon – he is one of the most respected people in government, both in California and across the nation. He is known as a thoughtful, collaborative leader who truly wants to improve people’s lives. He took over CalSTA in 2022 after having spent eight years as the Director at CalTrans.
It’s not news that California has a massive housing shortfall. Whenever housing is the topic at the Capitol – which is often – Dan Dunmoyer is in the middle of the conversation. The longtime CEO of the California Building Industry Association, Dunmoyer’s organization represents thousands of member companies encompassing every aspect of development. As such, he is the industry’s preeminent voice inside the Capitol community, earning a seat at the table of any housing and development negotiation. That often makes him the bad guy to the Capitol’s ecowarriors and a hero to those pushing the Legislature’s newest mantra – affordability. Either moniker would embarrass the softspoken and thoughtful Dunmoyer, who prefers to work both sides of the aisle whenever possible. He was a key factor in last year’s historic CEQA reform legislation and will 100% be in on any and all future discussions.
Tratten is one of the most versatile and effective lobbyists and political strategist out there. She also consistently flies under the radar for some reason, so we’re going to have to change that. She has been the Political Director for the Consumer Attorneys of California for years, meaning she often leads the annual brawls the CAOC has with business entities or the healthcare industry. Whether there or through TrattenPrice, the consulting firm she co-founded with business partner Jena Price, Tratten has long been a serious player at the nexus of a wide range of industries, from healthcare and insurance to environmental policy and tort law. As is the case with several folks on this year’s list, she had a heavy hand in the battle between Uber and the Consumer Attorneys, helping to forge an agreement that resulted in a pair of what promised to be very expensive initiatives being negotiated off this year’s ballot. That probably disappointed a lot of political consultants’ accountants, but voters heaved a sigh of relief.
Like most lobbyists, Eloy Garcia prefers to keep a low profile. But don’t let the softspoken Garcia’s demeanor fool you – he is a force for his clients. A former partner at lobbying heavyweight KP Public Affairs he is now a partner at Carpenter Garcia Sievers, where he represents a wide range of clients across a varied collection of industry sectors. But it is his work as a contract lobbyist for the Western States Petroleum Association that stands out from the rest. Garcia has been WSPA’s key political strategist for over two decades, having a major hand in every negotiation the groups has been involved in from cap-and-invest to the Low Carbon Fuel standard and beyond. He is widely respected for his expertise and ability to build solid relationships across party lines, a skill that allows him to work effectively and seamlessly with lawmakers, the governor’s office and other state agencies. In a world often defined by talk, Garcia is the quiet guy who just gets things done.
This has without question been a challenging year for California’s manufacturing sector, which also means it has been a tough one for Lance Hastings, President and CEO of the California Manufacturers & Technology Association. CMTA directly represents 400 businesses from the manufacturing community while also advocating for policies to benefit the sector as a whole. That would be a tough ask any year, but it has been made exponentially harder by President Trump’s on again/off again tariff policies that have cast a thundercloud of uncertainty over the industry. And while California remains the top manufacturing state by both output and total employment, the industry often faces significant opposition to its agenda in the Legislature. Navigating these conditions requires someone both parties can trust, if not always agree with. Hastings has for years proven to be that man. He is an innovative thinker who has also helped evolve the industry’s public image from one of old school factories churning out smoke and waste to one of modern hubs of clean tech and innovation.
Andrew Antwih seriously looks like he could be in his late 20s, but he’s been around the Capitol since 1994, when he was a Senate Fellow. After 12 ½ years as a legislative staffer and a stint as former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s chief legislative representative, Antwih entered the ranks of the third house in 2008 where he’s built a reputation as a detail-oriented advocate. At Shaw Yoder Antwih Schmelzer and Lange, another one of Sacramento’s top lobbying firms where he’s a partner, Antwih manages a broad portfolio covering healthcare, transportation, technology, housing and local government. He’s known for reading every word of a bill to ensure he fully understands the proposal, a habit that’s sure to play well with clients of the firm like Boeing, FedEx and the city and county of Los Angeles. Note: He is married to Teri Holoman, No. 9 on this list.
We don’t want to make any promises here, but if Bob White of California Strategies is a Top 100 Hall of Fame inductee this year, then it’s a good bet John Latimer is headed there someday too. Latimer’s lobbying firm, Capitol Advocacy, rivals CalStrat as one of the most successful in California history. It always is among the top grossing firms of the quarter these days — it topped over $3 million in receipts in four of the five quarters of this cycle — and regularly holds the No. 1 spot. Capitol Advocacy literally could do nothing for the rest of this session and still rank among the biggest and most active firms in the state. That is the definition of power and influence, and Latimer, a former legislative Chief of Staff, political campaign manager and 1998 Assembly candidate, manages it all with a deft hand.
Scott Wetch, who merged his lobbying firm with Actum in 2024, is on this list because of his fierce advocacy for unions. As one Capitol insider puts it, “on labor issues, you don’t have to get right with the unions as much as you have to get right with Wetch.” And that ain’t easy. Wetch, who also is a member of the California State Athletic Commission, which regulates professional and amateur boxing, kickboxing and mixed martial arts, is a fighter himself and he always answers the bell for his clients. His bruising style hasn’t exactly made him the most popular figure in the Capitol community, but he doesn’t care and neither does labor. In the legislative ring, Wetch lands blows and tallies wins.
Alicia Isaacs-Lee is part of one of the Capitol community’s most dynamic duos. Her wife Mandy Isaacs-Lee (No. 80) is a rising force in the third house while Alicia pulls the levers of power within state government as one of the Assembly’s most influential aides. Previously Deputy Chief of Staff to Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, Alicia now is a Chief Consultant and confidant to Assembly Budget Chair Jesse Gabriel, which makes her a key player in arguably the single most important piece of policy approved by the Legislature each and every year. Alicia is known to be equally adept with the carrot or the stick and is feared as much as she is loved. Cross her at your own peril.
Mark Macarro is both a state and national leader for Native Americans. He’s led the Pechanga Band of Indians, the owners and operators of the second largest tribal casino in California, the Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula, for 30 straight years. He’s also served as the president of the National Congress of American Indians, which represents the broad interests of tribal governments nationwide and is the largest Native American group of its kind in the country, since 2023. He keeps a low profile like most of the Native American leaders on this list, but wields power that might not be fully appreciated by everyone in Sacramento.
It is not every day that political icons get taken down in the way that labor leader César Chávez was in March. The stories that New York Times reporters Sarah Hurtes and Manny Fernandez produced on the yearslong sexual abuse and assaults inflicted by Chávez on numerous women and young girls hit the Capitol like an earthquake. It did so in great part because Huerta, herself an icon of the civil rights movement, stepped forward to validate the stories. It is hard to know how the NYT stories would have been received without her coming forth, but we know for sure what happened when she did. Within days statues were coming down and parks, schools, streets, bridges and anything else honoring him were being renamed and César Chávez Day quickly became Farmworkers Day. Moreover, it reinvigorated necessary conversations about hero worship, sexual violence, trauma and the silencing of victims. And we think it’s fair to say it likely had a big impact on the reaction to another series of allegations to come the very next month against then-Congressman and gubernatorial aspirant Eric Swalwell.
No. 65 Alexei Koseff / Sophia Bollag
Speaking of Swalwell…every political reporter dreams of doing stories that have a huge impact on readers. But few can imagine their work having the kind of impact the stories San Francisco Chronicle reporters Alexei Koseff and Sophia Bollag had on this year’s gubernatorial campaign and perhaps even California’s future. At one point in early April it seemed that then-Congressman Eric Swalwell was on his way to the November runoff. Within days of their story reporting a litany of accusations of sexual harassment and assault against Swalwell, the congressman was out. The work Koseff (now with the Washington Post) and Bollag did was classic shoe leather journalism, shepherding anxious sources through what can be a terrifying process, checking and rechecking everything along the way until they were sure they had the entire story down cold. It is not remotely hyperbole that their reporting could change the future of this state, given how different the race could have been if the allegations against Swalwell had come out after the June primary. We’ll never know, and thanks to them we didn’t have to find out.
If James Siva only was the chair of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association, otherwise known as CNIGA, the nonprofit that represents California’s gaming tribes, or only the long-time vice chair of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, which owns and operates the towering Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa north of Palm Springs, he’d still have the cachet to make this list. But he’s both, so you know he’s more than deserving. An outspoken advocate for tribal sovereignty, Siva has been at the forefront of the tribes’ ongoing fights to protect their turf from interlopers near and far, which have focused more lately on cardrooms from within the state and less on out-of-state businesses like DraftKings and FanDuel. But you can bet whoever challenges the tribes will hear from Siva, who offers up unapologetically bold and blunt quotes that scribes like us love.
Lynn “Nay” Valbuena’s power and influence stretches beyond the Golden State. As the long-time leader of one of the most powerful gaming tribes in California — the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation, also known as the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians — Valbuena oversees not only the tribe’s wildly successful Yaamava’ Resort & Casino, located on its Southern California reservation, but also the Palms Casino in Las Vegas, which the tribe bought in 2021. That made San Manuel the first tribe to fully own and operate a Sin City casino, a milestone that continues to reverberate even as the Seminole Tribe of Florida currently erects a new Hard Rock casino, complete with a guitar-shaped tower, on the Las Vegas Strip. Valbuena’s leadership extends beyond gaming, however. She previously served as a delegate to the National Congress of American Indians and as a trustee for the National Museum of the American Indian. She currently chairs the Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations or TASIN, an association of federally recognized tribal governments in Southern California.
For the entirety of his failed gubernatorial campaign, Tom Steyer talked regularly about utilities screwing over consumers and his plan to bring down utility rates by 25%. The focal point of that ire was PG&E (and SoCal Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric), which he accused of essentially reaming customers in order to pay shareholders and executives exorbitant returns and bonuses. He fell short of calling to have PG&E broken up, but Sen. Scott Wiener introduced legislation to do just that. None of which is new for the beleaguered utility, which has been skewered for years over everything from its relentless rate hikes to its role in some of the most devastating fires in California history. So how does it stay such a force in the Capitol? Well, one big reason is PG&E Senior Vice President for Government Affairs Chris Patterson. We don’t know what special magic he brings to the table but it’s hard to imagine someone being more effective for their employer, particularly one as often vilified as his.
Danny Curtin, the long-time director of the California Conference of Carpenters, has become a regular on this list over the last several years thanks to his work on the state’s ongoing housing crisis. The carpenters are not always in sync with other labor groups one might think would be natural allies, like the State Building and Construction Trades Council, something that doesn’t seem to concern Curtin one bit. His union has carved out its own unique positions in debates over construction issues like the prevailing wage and California Environmental Quality Act. Curtin and the Carpenters Union have done more than just forge their own political identity. They have become a Capitol force with the power to make or break efforts to address California’s housing crisis. And Curtin is the person who wields the hammer for his union. Prior to leading the carpenters, Curtin was the Chief Deputy Director of the California Department of Industrial Relations. In January, he was reappointed to the California Water Commission, where he’s served for more than a decade. Fun fact: his favorite body of water in California is Lake Tahoe.
California’s historic Proposition 13 was a long time ago – 1978 to be exact – and the man behind it, Howard Jarvis, is long gone. But his spirit lives on in Jon Coupal, head of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. While HJTA hasn’t always fared well in local tax battles, it has generally been successful at beating back statewide efforts to get around Prop. 13. This year Coupal went after the locals again, leading a successful charge to qualify a tax-cutting ballot measure that critics argued would have had a devastating impact on local economies. He and other supporters (notably the California Business Roundtable) argued many of those same locals had been using a loophole in the law to violate Prop. 13’s spirit. By qualifying his measure for the ballot and then steadfastly refusing to pull it unless he got something big in return, Coupal gained the upper hand. He used that leverage to force majority Dems and the governor to agree to a measure to make it harder for those local taxes to happen. Leverage is power, and Coupal used it.
Liz Snow has had a series of Big Important Jobs over the years, including Chief of Staff to Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Chief Operating Officer of the California Dental Association. These days she oversees all political operations for the California Chamber of Commerce, which is as hefty a job as it sounds. In addition to overseeing the ChamberPAC, JobsPAC and CalBusPAC, she was also instrumental in getting the Chamber involved in independent expenditure campaigns to bolster business-friendly candidates and ballot measures around the state. The famously cautious Chamber has long avoided getting into IE campaigns, and many observers doubt it would have happened without her. Being the Chief of Staff to the Speaker undoubtedly gives someone a lot of sway in the Capitol community. But in bringing to bear her vast experience, exceptional political instincts, strategic skills and trove of relationships in the Capitol, Snow has likely become an even bigger force than when she was in the building. And here there’s no family member looking over her shoulder!
At times it is easy to think only of Jodi Hicks when talking about Planned Parenthood of California. But she is far from the only one carrying PPCA’s flag into battle. These days much of the heavy lifting falls on Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Angela Pontes. A former Chief Deputy Legislative Secretary for Gavin Newsom, Pontes has become the public face of PPCA’s lobbying efforts in the Capitol. She testifies regularly before legislative committees, and leverages her deep well of relationships with lawmakers, health leaders and of course the governor to bolster support for PPCA’s agenda. And let the record show she is damned good at it. As much credit as Hicks deserves for PPCA getting $90 million in state funds in a truly horrible budget year, Pontes deserves her flowers as well. Pontes has the competitive drive of an elite athlete, which she was during a successful diving career in college at Georgetown. She also moonlights these days as a spin instructor.
Healthcare is always a major policy issue in Sacramento, and even more so now with massive federal spending cuts coming next year. Which makes people like SEIU Senior Government Relations Advocate Tiffany Whiten even more influential than usual. She has become a ubiquitous presence at the Capitol, where she has built an incredibly strong network of relationships that give her easy access to lawmakers and staff virtually any time she needs it. She has advocated for just about every form of healthcare in her career, with particular expertise in representing the interests of 400,000 long-term care and in-home care workers. Some of that passion is driven by her own experience as a family caregiver to her mother with Alzheimer’s. Tia Orr is always near the top of this list for a reason, but nobody should sleep on Whiten, who is without question one of the most impactful labor folks in the game.
Paths to the third house vary. Mark Weideman came to it via the corporate route, having served as an officer for Blue Shield of California and AT&T, where he oversaw legislative, regulatory, legal and political activities. His lobbying firm, the Weideman Group, is among the most successful in California, currently representing 65 clients with nine registered lobbyists. (That’s a big firm.) Weideman played a big part in enacting laws to create the California Wildlife Fund, expand Medi-Cal to previously ineligible populations and allow terminally ill patients in California to request aid-in-dying drugs. He’s also a licensed attorney in the state and previously practiced with the international law firm Pillsbury and with the Sacramento-based firm Wilke Fleury. He did his undergrad at UC Berkeley and went to law school at Hastings College. Don’t confuse him with the former Australian rules football player of the same name.
There is a scene in “Christmas Vacation” where Clark gets mad when he finds out he’s been enrolled in the Jelly of Month Club and Cousin Eddie tells him, “Clark, that’s the gift that keeps on giving the whole year.” Fundraiser David Pruitt gave the California Democratic Party a gift like that — and it can fund way more than a new pool for the Griswolds. Pruitt is the architect of the new and improved Speaker’s Cup golf tournament, which we hear routinely raises enormous sums of money for California’s majority party, thanks to the introduction of Pruitt’s signature innovation, the Speaker’s Circle funding scheme, which costs big corporate interests trying to get the Speaker’s ear a boatload to join. Pruitt also fundraises for a number of individual Dems, including Xavier Becerra, as well as various PACs and committees, making him a central cog in Speaker Robert Rivas’ bustling political machine.
Erin Niemela and her business partner Emily Pappas (No. 77) have one of the most impressive client lists around. The names there include corporate luminaries like eBay, Indeed, Land O’Lakes, Mattel, PayPal, Salesforce, FanDuel, Sony Pictures, Spotify, StubHub and Union Pacific Railroads, which explains how Niemela Pappas & Associates is always one of the top grossing lobbying shops in the Capitol. It might not seem like it based on that clientele, but Niemela also considers herself a big environmental champion. Regardless of who she is repping, she is known as a consummate pro and a fierce advocate who leverages her decades of experience in the Capitol – including time as a staffer for the likes of former Assemblymember Tom Bates, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and Senate pro Tem Don Perata – to her clients’ advantage.
Pappas’s business partner Erin Niemela (No. 76) has been on this list for years, but for some inexplicable reason we have not deigned to have Emily here as well. Full disclosure – we did include her in a list of top lobbyists a dozen years ago but we apparently lost the plot from there. What the hell were we thinking? For two decades now Pappas has been making herself into one of the best contract lobbyists around, with widely respected expertise in everything from pharmaceuticals to energy. We’ve already rattled off their impressive client list so let’s remind everyone that Pappas has worked in the White House, the U.S. Embassy in Paris, the California Senate and the governor’s office. She is known for her ability to work well with all parties and somehow manages to keep a positive and caring attitude in the process. That is unto itself pretty noteworthy, though we’ve heard she also has a backbone of steel. Pappas was also previously a partner at Lehman, Levi, Pappas & Sadler before starting Niemela Pappas & Associates in 2014.
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.
In a modern world where artificial intelligence, social media protections for the young and data privacy are among the biggest issues facing state legislators everywhere, of course Meta’s Director of California Public Policy is going to rank among the most influential unelected people in the Golden State. But Mona Pasquil Rogers isn’t on this list just because her employer owns Facebook and Instagram. She’s a deeply experienced political insider, having served not only as Appointments Secretary to Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown and Chief of Staff to Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, but also as acting Lieutenant Governor when Garamendi was elected to Congress. In fact, Pasquil Rogers was the first female, Asian Pacific Islander or Filipino American to serve as California Lieutenant Governor. So, don’t let the title fool you. Pasquil Rogers can command a room on her own. Representing a tech giant like Meta just makes her all the more powerful.
A couple years ago, when Capitol Weekly ranked the Top 10 Capitol power couples, Mandy Isaacs-Lee and her wife Alicia Isaacs-Lee came in at No. 4. If we redid that list today, they’d be higher. Alicia, No. 62 on this year’s Top 100, remains in her influential role as chief consultant and “right hand” to Assembly Budget Chair Jesse Gabriel while Mandy’s boutique lobbying firm, Omni Government Relations, has grown over the last two cycles, adding a third lobbyist on staff as its quarterly receipts have generally trended upwards with clients like AT&T, Kaiser Permanente and CVS. Omni quite possibly could be the only woman, Asian American Pacific Islander and LGBTQ+-owned lobbying firm in town. Speaking of which, Mandy is also a high-profile AAPI and LGBTQ+ activist, serving on the boards of Equality California and the California LGBT Leadership Fund.
We’re not sure there are enough words to do justice to everything Jacob Mejia does. For TASIN he sets agendas, follows state and fed bills and regulations, writes press releases, organizes candidate interviews, puts on summits and writes testimony. For Pechanga he does local, state and federal oversight, policy & liaison direction and assists in all press for the Pechanga Development Corp, the Pechanga Resort & Casino & Pechanga Tribal Council, from gaming to charities. He also assists Pechanga Tribal Chair Mark Macarro in his role as Chair and as President of NIGA (National Indian Gaming Assn). He works closely with the various Pechanga legal teams, in-house and contract, and also works with the lobby teams in both California and DC. And somehow he finds time to oversee all ballot measures of tribal importance and Pechanga IE’s surrounding campaigns, and all of it done with grace and respect. Which is probably why he is one of the most respected tribal employees in the state and beyond. Note: Mejia is on the board of Open California, the publisher of Capitol Weekly.
Unlike some of the lobbyists we highlight, Joe Lang came to the third house relatively early in his political career. Lang started out as a staffer on the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee in 1974, then became Chief of Staff to Senate pro Tem David Roberti in 1982. By 1984 he had started his own lobbying firm, which became Lang, Hansen, Giroux & Kidane, which today remains one of the top firms in Sacramento. With just two other lobbyists, Lang’s partners Bob Giroux and Awet Kidane, the firm represents a roster of 36 clients, including the E. & J. Gallo Winery, the Hilmar Cheese Company, the Hollywood Park Casino, the International Union of Painter and Allied Trades, the Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association and the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams. Lang’s had his fingers in a variety of major issues over years, like the 1993 Worker’s Compensation Reform Act, the Electrical Restructuring Act of 1996 and efforts to enact comprehensive gaming regulations in the state, the last of which remains a hot topic today.
California has its share and yours of carbon reduction mandates. But imposing mandates is one thing; actually meeting them is another thing entirely. There is a small army of people across a wide range of agencies and industries working toward that goal, and California Public Utilities Commission President John Reynolds is one of the generals leading the campaign. He’s only been in the role since February, but he’s been with the CPUC since 2013 so he’s hardly a neophyte. He has big shoes to fill – his predecessor Alice Reynolds has long been one of Gavin Newsom’s most trusted energy advisors and was a regular on this list. So far he appears up to the task, but whether that remains the case is TBD. The transition was driven by Newsom’s desire to see the agency focus more on, among several things, achieving lower utility bills for consumers while also meeting the state’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2045.
Shari McHugh is known as “Ms. Insurance.” Her expertise in one of the thorniest issues at the Capitol is a major reason why the boutique lobbying firm she and her husband Gavin operate can run with the big dogs who collect far more in quarterly receipts. McHugh Koepke Padron Government Relations boasts clients like the Association of California Life and Health Insurance Companies, the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors and the Hartford Insurance Group as well as a diverse array of other big special interests, including the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the Pechanga Band of Indians, Shell Oil, Warner Music and the Western States Petroleum Association. Still, Shari is most associated with the insurance industry; prior to joining the firm, she was the senior vice president for the Coalition of California Insurance Professionals.
Fiona Hutton is based in Los Angeles, but somehow she always seems to be in the thick of meaty Capitol issues like healthcare, technology, energy, conservation, natural resources, state parks and California’s complex water system. There are good reasons for that; she is tough, tenacious, independent and very strategic, which is why from ballot measures to reputation management Hutton is on almost everyone’s “first call” list. Her eclectic client roster includes the likes of Comcast, Amazon, SoCal Gas, Sutter Health, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power and NBC Universal, all major players here in Sacramento. On that last front, she is a big part of the media giant’s strategy for handling all the logistics behind its coverage of the 2028 Olympic Games being held in Los Angeles. By the way, this year marks Fiona Hutton & Associates’ 25th anniversary.
In 2004, Soyla Fernández founded what’s believed to be California’s first Latina-owned lobbying firm. Now known as Fernández Jensen Kimmelshue Government Affairs, the firm ranks among most successful in the state, with five staff lobbyists and a roster of clients that includes such big names as Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, Southern California Edison and Meta (the owner of Facebook and Instagram). Fernández is a true American success story, the daughter of migrant workers from Mexico who spent part of her childhood working in the same fields as her parents. Today, she’s married to fellow lobbyist Kelly Jensen, whose own firm, Sloat Higgins Jensen & Associates, is older and larger, although Fernández and company have been closing the gap aggressively. During this session, they’ve generally occupied the same strata of lobbying firms, according to quarterly receipts. That too is an American success story.
We said this last year, but it’s so telling we’re gonna repeat the anecdote again: Kevin Sloat has been a lobbyist so long that Assemblymember Alex Lee was only two years old when Sloat first put out his shingle in 1997. Today, Sloat’s lobbying firm, Sloat Higgins Jensen & Associates, is one of the biggest and most successful in the state, with a lobbying staff of six and a wildly diverse group of clients, including (deep breath) Accenture, Anheuser-Busch, the Office of the CSU Chancellor, the California Trucking Association, Chevron, DirecTV, McDonalds, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Netflix, PG&E, Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation (owners of Cache Creek Casino Resort west of Sacramento) and the players associations for Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer the NBA, NFL and NHL. So, yeah, he’s kind of a big deal.
Yvonne Wheeler is the first Black woman elected president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO (LA Fed), the second-largest central labor body in the United States, with more than 300 affiliated unions representing more than 800,000 members. Wheeler also serves on the executive council of the California Labor Federation as first vice president, giving her influence that extends well beyond Los Angeles. She has become one of labor’s most trusted behind-the-scenes leaders, particularly when difficult negotiations require a steady hand and a practical approach. Wheeler has earned a reputation for bringing people together without sacrificing the priorities of working Californians. She’s soft-spoken, but in that steel magnolia way. You don’t rise to the top of organized labor without backbone, and you don’t stay there without knowing when to push and when to persuade. Wheeler is the daughter of a longtime union activist from Louisiana who was active during the Civil Rights Movement.
Kassy Perry has long been one of the Capitol community’s premier public affairs pros. A veteran of both the executive and legislative branches, she has advised governors, Fortune 500 CEOs, lawmakers and any number of nonprofit leaders. While Perry Communications Group deftly works across a wide range of policy issues, the firm’s forte remains healthcare, where it continues to guide clients through some of California’s most complex legislative, regulatory and public affairs challenges. Perry has always preferred working behind the curtain to standing center stage, which is ironic considering she’s made a career out of helping other people command the spotlight. As Perry Communications Group continues to grow, so too has its reputation for tackling some of the Capitol’s toughest policy and communications challenges — proof that you don’t have to be the loudest voice in the room to have an outsized impact. Full disclosure: Perry is on the board of Open California, publisher of Capitol Weekly.
In her bio last year, we said campaign consultant Courtni Pugh has had some huge wins and huge losses in her career. Well, she took a big ol’ L in the early part of this year when she went all in on a certain gubernatorial candidate who ended up not making it to election day and resigned his Congressional seat to boot. But she was quickly added to Xavier Becerra’s Primary campaign team and has just been tapped to co-chair (along with Rick Rivas, No. 16) a new group opposing Prop. 39, Asm. Carl DeMaio’s voter ID law. Pugh has the ear of some of California’s biggest political names, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Attorney General Rob Bonta and Congressman Dave Min. Yeah, she takes some losses, but that’s what happens when you swing big.
There is no newsroom leader overseeing coverage of California politics today better than Christopher Cadelago. As Politico’s Editorial Director for California, he knows the issues as well as any reporter on the Capitol beat, and he uses that insight to shape the most thoughtful daily journalism newsletter in the Golden State, the California Playbook. Cadelago has assembled a stellar team of Sacramento veterans and new faces who scoop the competition on the regular, and he is leading the publication’s expansion in both LA and the Bay Area. The bureau has actually tripled in size, something unheard of in this time of media failure everywhere you look. Cadelago was a great statehouse reporter in his own right back in the day, and he also spent several years in Washington D.C. covering the Biden administration. He came home a few years ago and brought all of that experience and news judgement with him, forming a team that is redefining what Capitol coverage looks like in these difficult times for journalism.
KCRA Political Director Ashley Zavala will be the first to tell you she isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. She’ll also tell you that from childhood she has been one to question authority, which is part and parcel to being a good reporter. Well, she is most definitely a good reporter. Scratch that – she’s great. We once dubbed her the “Oh Shit” reporter because a staffer told us that was their first thought if they stepped out of their office and saw her coming toward them with a camera and a microphone. She is also a fierce fighter for reporters’ access at the Capitol. But that doesn’t begin to fully convey her import on the Capitol media scene. Zavala not only brings the details of the biggest legislative issues to her audience on a daily basis, she now goes even more in depth with her Sunday show, California Politics 360. It is a throwback to the heyday of Sunday political talk shows featuring a Who’s Who from around the Capitol. She might have her critics, but a lot of them sure want to be on her show. ‘Nuff said.
Lobbyist Stephanie Roberson is something of a unicorn. The owner of Stephanie Roberson Strategies, “a boutique, Black-owned single member firm,” – the number of which you can count on one finger – Roberson is a well-seasoned Capitol veteran who got her start way back in 1999 working for Attorney General Bill Lockyer. She stayed until 2007 when she joined the California Nurses Association as their chief lobbyist, playing a critical role in building the organization into one of the Capitol’s fiercest players. Once she left the Nurses and hung her own shingle, she quickly acquired clients like the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Medical Association and Affiliates, two big fish in a pond full of them. And this year she snagged perhaps her biggest catch of all – Major League Baseball. It’s easy to see why she is so successful. She has long been a major player across a wide array of issues, from labor and health care to reproductive rights and education. She is widely known and respected for her tenacity and work ethic.
Larisa Cespedes is a partner at Miller, Cespedes & Associates (MCA), one of Sacramento’s small-but-mighty boutique lobbying firms. MCA employs just three lobbyists but represents an impressive roster of clients, including the American Beverage Association, Southern California Edison, Estée Lauder, FedEx, Phillips 66 and Walmart. Not too shabby for a firm that has firmly established itself as one of the Capitol’s most effective boutique shops. Cespedes is widely recognized as one of the hardest-working people in the Capitol ecosystem. She has the rare ability to walk into a tense situation, lower the temperature and still advocate fiercely for her clients across an exceptionally broad range of issues. Colleagues know she’s done the homework long before the meeting begins. And somehow she still manages to do it all with a big belly laugh you can hear from down the hall. Cespedes previously spent a decade with Lang, Hansen, O’Malley & Miller before helping launch MCA in 2020.
Politics has always been a bare knuckle game, maybe never more so than right now. The relentless hyperpartisanship, the long hours, public scrutiny and time away from family – not to mention online abuse and the increasing threats of violence – have convinced many potential candidates to forgo seeking office. This has been particularly true for women, who have long had to deal with questions and judgements about running for office that men almost never face. For many women, it just isn’t worth it. So then how do you explain the success of Close the Gap California Executive Director Susannah Delano, who has played a major role in recruiting so many qualified progressive women to run that California has gone from 19th in women’s representation in state legislatures to 4th, including having a female majority in the Senate? Delano is loath to take the credit for Close the Gap’s success, but she is the organization’s heart, soul and driving force. Women are on pace to achieve a majority in the Legislature by 2028. If they do, she will be a huge reason why.
The campaign waged by SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan (No. 31) to impose a one-time tax on billionaires to backfill federal health care spending cuts has undoubtedly fired up progressives statewide. But it also brings to mind a quote attributed to Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in the wake of his forces’ devastating attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 – “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” It is doubtful Yamamoto actually said those words, but there’s wisdom in being wary of motivating an opponent blessed with far superior resources. This is where Shaudi Fulp comes in. A longtime Sacramento lobbyist, Fulp is now leading the day to day operations of Grow California, the brainchild of crypto billionaires Chris Larsen and Tim Draper who – along with many other now very motivated Big Tech billionaires – have thrown themselves into the political ring to counter what they see as Big Labor’s hold on the Capitol. And while they provide the resources, the smart, strategic and very driven Fulp will be the person responsible for bringing their message to voters. You’ve been warned.
In a time when both the parties and voters have run about as far away from each other as is politically possible, it almost sounds silly to talk about bipartisanship in the California Capitol. I mean, what’s next? Are you going to tell us the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus are waiting in the lobby for their one o’clock meeting? As cool as that would be, we think it’s actually way more fun that not only is there a functioning caucus with the sole function of fostering bipartisan solutions to vexing problems, but that a growing number of members are itching to join said caucus. And that is due in huge part to the work of April Manatt, Executive Director of the Problem Solvers Foundation, the mother ship for the Problem Solvers Caucus. At this time last year the groups had 21 members. It now has 26 and more are looking to get in all the time. Because as it turns out, a lot of lawmakers actually do want to get stuff done. They just needed the right leader to help show them the way.
We would never say it’s easy to lobby for megabucks corporate clients, but having access to lobbying resources that dwarf the entire operating budgets of most nonprofits definitely tilts the scales in your favor. So why would someone build a company around devotion to representing the little guys on the other side of those moneyed interests? For Jennifer Fearing the answer is simple: because those are her people. And let’s be clear – this is not and never will be a fair fight. But over the past couple of years, Fearing has built up her expert lobbying team while also adding more clients to Fearless Advocacy’s roster of persistent yet politically adroit nonprofit clients. In spite of the long odds, together they prevail more often than not. Fearing reminds us not to forget Alexander the Great’s adage: “I would not be afraid of an army of lions if led by a sheep. But I would always fear an army of sheep if led by a lion.”
Barros and her business partner Delilah Clay have quietly become one of the most effective boutique lobbying shops in Sacramento, with a client list that includes the California Hospital Association, NRG, Planned Parenthood and AT&T among others. That’s a solid roster for any shop, much less one with only two players. Her success comes from her innate ability to help her clients understand complex issues and she is widely respected for her ability to build coalitions and for her resilience under pressure. While she has her share of the big corporate clients, she also dedicated significant time and energy to issues impacting women and communities of color, including the passage of the CROWN Act, former State Sen. Holly Mitchell’s bill that bars discrimination based on a person’s hairstyle that has since been adopted in dozens of states. Barros has also championed the Silenced No More Act, which grants whistleblowers the power to speak out about discrimination and harassment (regardless of NDA’s) without fear of reprisal.
We have duly praised Politico’s Chris Cadelago for his stellar work in building the publication’s West Coast (best coast!) operation. But it is still the reporters who have to do the solid day-to-day work that makes political coverage so important in our society. And in the Capitol media ecosphere, few can hold a candle to Politico’s California Bureau Chief Melanie Mason. For going on two decades she has been one of the most deeply-sourced and authoritative reporters on the scene, as capable of longform investigative work as she is at co-authoring the California Playbook, Politico’s daily snapshot of what is going in the Capitol and beyond. She established her reputation during her dozen years at the L.A. Times before moving to Politico, including several years in the Times’ Washington D.C. bureau. She has covered just about everything you can in politics, from gubernatorial races to presidential campaigns, and her reporting on a certain governor’s national aspirations is must-read material. There are not many of us left out there who can move the needle with our reporting, but Mason is most definitely one who can and does.
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