Lobbying ban won’t affect pal of Newsom

SACRAMENTO — The lobbying ban that Gov. Gavin Newsom adopted last week for his political consultants does not include the type of “revolving door” prohibition that is standard in government service, allowing his advisers to return to lobbying his administration as soon as he stops paying them.

That appears to be the case for Jason Kinney, the lobbyist and longtime adviser to Newsom, whose attendance at a 50th birthday dinner for Kinney last month at the French Laundry sparked criticism over his close ties to consultants who also work for corporate clients and other influential interests at the state Capitol.

The governor’s office confirmed Wednesday, nearly a week after The Chronicle first inquired, that his new ethics policy bans a dozen people serving as paid consultants to Newsom’s campaign or the California Democratic Party from lobbying — and that Kinney is not among them.

Under the policy, announced Friday, Newsom committed to not hiring any registered lobbyist as a paid consultant and barred his paid campaign or political consultants from directly lobbying the governor, his staff or state agencies

under his control.

Kinney, as a registered lobbyist for the firm Axiom Advisors, is subject to the policy, but the governor’s office said he was in compliance because he is “not currently a paid consultant to the governor or his campaigns” or to the California Democratic Party.

The governor’s office and a spokesperson for Kinney did not respond to questions about whether Kinney had gone off the payroll so he could keep lobbying the administration.

After working with Newsom on several campaigns, Kinney has received at least $ 90,000 in consulting fees from the state Democratic Party since the governor took office at the beginning of last year. He was paid as recently as the end of September, the last month of expenses that the party has reported.

“Jason and all Axiom lobbyists are in full compliance with the governor’s new policy and will obviously comply with it going forward, as they do all rules and disclosure requirements governing lobbying,” Kinney spokesperson Molly Weedn said in a statement.

California law forbids any state or local official who leaves government service from lobbying their former agency for a year. That includes members of the Legislature and boards and commissions, though not most nonelected employees.

Newsom’s ethics policy does not have any mandatory waiting period before his former consultants can resume lobbying him. Nor does it prohibit registered lobbyists from serving as unpaid advisers.

Jim DeBoo, another close political adviser to Newsom who will join his staff in January, recently deregistered as a lobbyist, according to the governor’s office. Over the past two years, DeBoo’s lobbying firm reported clients including the California Medical Association, which represents doctors; the California Apartment Association, a trade group for rental property owners; and Kaiser and TMobile.

He has also received at least $ 100,000 in consulting fees from the California Democratic Party during Newsom’s term. DeBoo has remained on the party payroll in December, the governor’s office said.

Newsom has declined to specify how much distance he would put between himself and Kinney, a friend and consultant of his for two decades.

Kinney is a partner at Axiom Advisors, which has pulled in nearly $ 11 million in lobbying fees from clients ranging from the construction industry to Facebook and Netflix since it was formed following Newsom’s election in 2018.

After The Chronicle reported on the birthday party at the French Laundry last month, environmentalists, cannabis shop owners and others who have faced off in Sacramento against Axiom clients, which include the oil company Aera Energy and the online marijuana directory and marketplace Weedmaps, pointed to the dinner as an example of the type of access that money can buy.

Asked at a news conference Monday whether he would continue to seek political advice from Kinney under the new ethics policy, Newsom did not answer.

“We submitted, I think, comparatively the highest standards than any previous administration has advanced,” he said.