Newsom, 51, will be sworn in as California’s 40th chief executive on Jan. 7, but his growing group of seasoned professionals is getting to work well ahead of that date. Here are several recent additions with the potential to hold some sway over high-level technology work:
• Longtime gubernatorial official Daniel Zingale has joined the new administration as senior adviser on strategy and communications, according to Politico. Zingale, the founding director of the state Department of Managed Health Care, according to the Los Angeles Times, connected the governor’s office to state departments under Gov. Gray Davis — then stayed in Sacramento to lead incoming first lady Maria Shriver’s staff when her husband, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, replaced Davis.
Zingale will reportedly take the lead on health care — not entirely a surprise. Politico’s Angela Hart noted that as Shriver’s chief of staff and Schwarzenegger’s senior adviser, Zingale was “point person on health care” as Schwarzenegger went after universal health care. In a Nov. 20 open letter to Newsom in CALmatters, Zingale called on Newsom to issue a California passport “that could function like a Real ID card but carry the added value of a sense of belonging”; and to sentence young people to “safe and secure campuses of learning and career training” instead of prison.
• Angie Wei, chief of staff at the California Labor Federation, comprising more than 1,200 unions and representing more than 2.1 million union members, will be Newsom’s chief deputy Cabinet secretary for policy development. Politico called it an interesting hire, coming ahead of a Legislature during which lawmakers might drill down on the state Supreme Court’s April 30 Dynamex decision, which threatens to redraw the line defining employees and independent contractors.
In March, Wei discussed the possibility that Newsom might serve eight years — until 2027 — with radio station KQED, and how the state must keep up with tech: “What does work look like eight years from now? And ... the role of this governor and the next administration is going to have an incredible thumbprint on that. And so, are we going to be overtaken by robots? Are we going to be all in driverless cars? Are we going to be able to keep a regulatory framework that can keep up with the emerging technology?” Wei is also a member of the 2020 census’ California Complete Count Committee.
• Maricela Rodriguez, senior communications program manager at The California Endowment, is slated to join the administration as director of civic engagement and strategic partnerships, she confirmed to Techwire. It's another position with a potential window on tech. Like Zingale, Rodriguez is a veteran of the Schwarzenegger administration, having served as director of program development and policy liaison for Shriver.
• Jason Elliott, Newsom’s policy director when the latter was San Francisco mayor and a senior adviser on his gubernatorial campaign, will join the administration as chief deputy Cabinet secretary for executive branch operations. Elliott also served as chief of staff for the late San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee and two successors including current Mayor London Breed.
• Priscilla Cheng, a senior political adviser to the campaign, will join the administration as director of external affairs. She’s most recently served as business license commissioner for Los Angeles County and as a Marshall Memorial Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
