{"id":80061,"date":"2025-12-03T18:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T18:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/80061\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T18:11:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T18:11:10","slug":"dana-williamson-and-the-secret-world-of-sacramento-political-operatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/80061\/","title":{"rendered":"Dana Williamson and the secret world of Sacramento political operatives"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dana<\/a>Dana Williamson, a former top aide to Gov. Gavin Newsom, center, leaves the courthouse Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, in Sacramento. (Photo by Sophie Austin\/Associated Press)<\/p>\n

This column\u00a0was originally published by CalMatters.\u00a0Sign up<\/a>\u00a0for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

Most Californians probably see the Capitol as a place where governors, legislators and other state officials gather to do the public\u2019s business. That\u2019s true, at least superficially.<\/p>\n

\"Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n

Elected officeholders come and go, but the Capitol has a permanent substructure of men and women who do the real, if often hidden, business of retail politics. Those in the \u201ccommunity,\u201d as some dub it, constantly circulate among its three pillars \u2014 staff on the public payroll, lobbyists for interest groups, and managers of political campaigns.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not uncommon for someone to have portfolios in all three. And as the revolving door opens and closes, it\u2019s difficult to discern when and where one role ends and another begins, or even whether there is, in fact, a difference.<\/p>\n

Dana Williamson typifies the species. And\u00a0her arrest last month on federal criminal charges<\/a>\u00a0opens a window into the secretive world of California\u2019s professional political operatives.<\/p>\n

The 23-count indictment alleges Williamson \u2014 who had been Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s chief of staff until her abrupt resignation a year ago \u2014 conspired with two other figures to siphon money from a dormant political campaign fund maintained by Xavier Becerra, a former congressman, state attorney general and Biden administration cabinet member.<\/p>\n

Williamson is also charged with falsifying documents to justify a COVID-era federal business loan, lying to FBI agents and falsely claiming income tax deductions as business expenses \u2014 for a lavish vacation and purchases of expensive designer goods.<\/p>\n

The two men who were charged with Williamson, Sean McCluskie, Becerra\u2019s former chief deputy in the California Department of Justice, and lobbyist Greg Campbell, have pleaded guilty. But Williamson insists that she is innocent.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the juiciest scandal to hit the Capitol since the FBI\u2019s undercover bribery investigation, dubbed \u201cShrimpgate<\/a>,\u201d erupted 37 years ago and sent some legislators and lobbyists to prison.<\/p>\n

Among the Capitol\u2019s power players, Williamson has stood near the top, working for three governors, lobbying for various interest groups and running ballot measure campaigns. She is known for a profanity-laced, take-no-prisoners style.<\/p>\n

After Williamson was arrested, the question for many Capitol denizens was whether the case would adversely affect Becerra, who is running for governor, and Newsom, who is obviously, if not officially, running for president.<\/p>\n

Becerra is a victim but may face questions about his judgment, since he was apparently being fleeced by those he hired.<\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s office says Williamson resigned a year ago after telling him she was under investigation. At the time, he praised her as a dedicated public servant.<\/p>\n

If there is something in the case that could harm Newsom, or at least give political rivals some ammunition, it is\u00a0what happened shortly after Williamson became the governor\u2019s top aide<\/a>\u00a0in 2023. According to the indictment, she used the position to intercede in a pending state discrimination suit against one of her lobbying clients, Activision Blizzard, a Santa Monica video game company, and then lied to FBI agents about the case.<\/p>\n

In 2022 Janette Wipper, chief counsel of the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which brought the case against Activision, was fired. Her assistant, Melanie Proctor, resigned in protest, citing pressure from the governor\u2019s office to settle the case.<\/p>\n

Proctor wrote in a public memo that the governor\u2019s office \u201crepeatedly demanded advance notice of litigation strategy and next steps in the litigation\u201d in the case, and the interference \u201cmimicked the interests of Activision\u2019s counsel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Williamson scandal could be a one-and-done incident if her attorney negotiates a plea agreement. Or it could drag out if she insists on a trial and the dirty linen is displayed for all to see, perhaps revealing even more politically embarrassing episodes of backroom maneuvers.<\/p>\n

CalMatters<\/a>\u00a0is a nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization bringing Californians stories that probe, explain and explore solutions to quality of life issues while holding our leaders accountable.<\/p>\n

Want to submit a letter to the editor, guest column or\u00a0opinion\u00a0piece? Find our guidelines and submission form\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dana Williamson, a former top aide to Gov. Gavin Newsom, center, leaves the courthouse Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6752,32506,32442,1055,457,45865,121,123,122,3707],"class_list":["post-80061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-calmatters","tag-campaign-fund","tag-dana-williamson","tag-fbi","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-lobbyists","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-xavier-becerra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}