Known for her decades of expertise navigating California’s unique political landscape, Gale Kaufman’s strategic guidance has led her clients through some of the State’s most significant and successful campaigns. While widely recognized for her leadership on hundreds of California State Senate and Assembly campaigns over the years, she has gained national and state notoriety for her decisive victories on many prominent statewide ballot initiative campaigns that have undoubtedly changed the direction of California’s future. She has also been widely recognized for her leadership on hundreds of CA Democratic State Senate, State Assembly, and independent expenditure campaigns over the years. 

Gale Kaufman was inducted into the American Association of Political Consultants Hall of Fame, as well as the Hall of Fame of Capitol Weekly’s annual Top 100 list. It is also why Campaigns & Elections Magazine named her as one of the nation’s most influential political figures in 2012. 

One of Kaufman’s most notable triumphs was in the 2005 statewide special election. She was the lead consultant for the Alliance for a Better California’s successful fight against a series of ballot initiatives, proposed by then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, that aimed to take away workers’ rights, threatened teacher tenure, and cut funding from public schools. Schwarzenegger had a total of four deceptive measures on the ballot, and with the help of the coalition led by Kaufman, all four were defeated. She has run at least one initiative every campaign season since. 

In 1992, then-Assembly Speaker Willie L. Brown, Jr. selected Kaufman to be the first woman to lead the Speaker’s Office of Majority Services. 

Kaufman has served as a political consultant to the California Teachers Association for thirty years. She lives in Sacramento with her husband Steve Murakami and has three sons David Kaufman, and Michael and Sean Murakami.