Newsom lost a top aide. Former Harris adviser will take her place.

(Losers love other losers! Doesn't he get Kamala lost under her advice?)

Before joining his staff, she operated her own consulting firm in Sacramento, Grace Public Affairs, and was a senior aide to numerous California elected officials, including cabinet secretary to former Gov. Jerry Brown, whom she has remained close to, as well as former Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. Williamson also was a strategist on several ballot measure campaigns, including major criminal justice reform efforts.

Williamson was not particularly close with Newsom when she became his top aide, taking the reins from then-chief Jim DeBoo. But she quickly solidified her place in his inner circle thanks to her experience navigating complex Capitol battles on everything from major climate policy to labor rights.

“He’s a little bit of a celebrity governor, and that can be intimidating to some people. And she is not intimidated. She gives zero fucks, which is part of what makes her so great,” said Anthony York, Newsom’s former communications director whose tenure overlapped with Williamson.

“Some in the Legislature may disagree, and some who end up on the wrong side of a text from Dana may disagree, but that’s what I love about her,” he added. “And that was really essential, that the two of them were able to build that relationship right away.”

Inside Newsom’s office, Williamson was at the center of nearly every major initiative since she joined nearly two years ago. In her earliest days, she helped wrangle legislation requiring oil market participants to submit vast amounts of data to a new division within the California Energy Commission that will decide whether to cap and penalize oil refiners’ profits. The following year, Newsom secured new authority to regulate oil refineries, requiring them to prevent price spikes causedby maintenance and low supplies.

And she was behind the whirlwind, 48-hour period when Newsom arrived at his selection to replace the late Dianne Feinstein, and how Laphonza Butler became a U.S. senator.

Her perennial assignment to “clean up” the statewide ballot made Williamson one of the most revered — and feared — figures in Sacramento.

Williamson, who is close to politically influential labor leaders like SEIU’s Tia Orr and Teri Holoman of the California Teachers Association, helped mediate a truce in 2023 between unions and fast food giants on worker regulations, defusing a long power struggle and looming ballot fight. Indeed, on numerous occasions she sought to avert costly and internecine conflicts that appeared headed for the ballot but could be solved with legislation.

https://archive.is/NdEUq