“As with any unpleasant surprise that bonks a candidate in the middle of a campaign, the impact usually depends on three things: how the candidates handle the matter, whether and how their opponents choose to use it against them, and whether there is more to come,” veteran Democratic strategist Garry South told the Washington Examiner. 

Dana Williamson, an influential deal maker and one of the state’s most sought-after Democratic political consultants both before and after she ran Newsom’s office, was arrested Wednesday. 

A federal grand jury charged the 53-year-old with 23 counts, including conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruct justice. She has also been accused of writing off $1 million in vacations, designer purses, and private jet trips as business expenses on her federal income tax returns. She pleaded not guilty and was ordered released on a $500,000 bond. 

Two of her longtime associates, Greg Campbell, a former high-level staffer in the California Assembly, and Sean McCluskie, an aide to Becerra, have been charged with related crimes and are expected to plead guilty. 

Federal court documents allege that, unknown to Becerra, McCluskie stole $225,000 worth of Becerra’s dormant campaign funds for his personal use, leading critics to accuse Becerra of being “asleep at the wheel” while his aide allegedly looted him. 

South said he was stunned that $225,000 could be siphoned out of a politician’s campaign account without someone noticing. 

“Did the account have no one watching it except the consultants who were pilfering from it?” South said. “Those of us who have run campaigns are scratching our heads. I can’t imagine how this would happen.” 

San Francisco GOP strategist Rich Christensen agreed, asking, “How are Californians supposed to trust him with their money if he failed to notice his own aide was stealing from him?”

Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host running as a Republican candidate in the statewide race, told the Washington Examiner that the indictments are another example of how “15 years of Democrat one-party rule have rotted California’s government from the inside out.” 

“The indictment of Gavin Newsom’s chief of staff is not an isolated scandal,” he said. “It is the predictable outcome of a corrupt Democrat political machine that thinks the rules do not apply to them. When the people running the state operate without accountability, complacency becomes entitlement and entitlement becomes corruption.”

Steven Maviglio, a Democratic strategist, cautioned against jumping to conclusions.  

“First of all, no one has been found guilty of anything,” he told the Washington Examiner. “Secondly, Becerra’s campaign has been stuck in the mud for months now. Let the voters decide if an alleged action by a staff member has any impact. It’s pretty weak coming from Republicans, when the Trump administration is knee-deep in ethical challenges far worse than what is being alleged in California.”

The two GOP candidates in the race, Hilton and Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco, have led the last four recent polls, including one released Friday by EMC Research. It showed Hilton with 20% of the vote, Democratic candidate Katie Porter with 16%, and Bianco with 14%. Becerra had 9% of the vote. 

While some believe recent events could force Becerra to bow out of the race, others like Sara Sadhwani, assistant professor of politics at Pomona College, think he’s in it for the long haul. 

“I think it is unlikely that Becerra will drop out of the governor’s race unless there is evidence that he knew about the scheme,” she told the Washington Examiner. “When individuals want to engage in nefarious behavior and violate the law, they will go to great lengths to operate in secret.” 

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She suggested a corollary to Becerra might be former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who claimed in 2020 he had no knowledge of his chief adviser Rick Jacobs’s alleged sexual misconduct, only to have a picture surface of himself with Jacobs making a lewd gesture. 

Calls to the California Republican Party for comment were not returned.