California’s lieutenant governor race could lead to higher office for a Sacramento woman

California’s lieutenant governor election is less race than prelude.

Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a Sacramento native and the first woman ever elected to the office, seems poised to run for governor four years from now. She makes no secret of this.

Reelection to the office she first won in 2018, assuming she deservedly prevails over Republican challenger Angela Underwood Jacobs, would start the clock on the “Kounalakis for Governor” speculation.

It would also be the latest achievement for a woman who was a major player at AKT Investments, the managing entity of one of the largest land companies in California. AKT was founded in Sacramento by Kounalakis’ father, Angelo K. Tsakopoulos.

A former ambassador to Hungary during the Obama administration, Kounalakis became the first woman in California history to sign bills into law earlier this year, when she was acting as governor while Gavin Newsom vacationed. Her position also puts her on the boards of the University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges systems as well as the State Lands Commission.

California’s second-highest office was created in 1849 primarily to fill in when the elected governor is out of state or unable to serve and to assume the office in the event of a vacancy. Both Newsom and Gray Davis served as lieutenant governor before being elected to the top job.

Kounalakis’ opponent for the post, Underwood Jacobs, is a former councilwoman for the Los Angeles area city of Lancaster and, according to her campaign website, a community banker and volunteer for various organizations. The Republican declined to be interviewed by The Bee’s Editorial Board.

“The job of lieutenant governor is what you make of it,” Kounalakis told us, alluding to the job’s famously modest portfolio.

Taking advantage of her position on all the state’s major higher education boards, Kounalakis has promoted the construction of sorely needed student housing on campuses across the state. She voted against tuition increases that were ultimately approved by a majority of her fellow UC regents.

Kounalakis is also using her platform to support this fall’s Proposition 1, which would enshrine the right to safe and equal access to abortion and contraceptives in the California Constitution.

“I’ve been able to accomplish the things that I’ve set out to do in my life because I’ve been able to control my choices over when and if and under what circumstances I wanted to have children,” Kounalakis said. “I am calling upon women and our allies in the state of California to get involved, to use their social media tools to help us build awareness” about the measure.

Kounalakis also led the California delegation to the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow last year. And when her majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands visited San Francisco recently, the lieutenant governor was there to greet her along with First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a meeting that resulted in an agreement to combat pollution.

At this stage of her political ascendancy, Kounalakis is as cautious as she is ambitious. She is also careful to maintain a respectful relationship with Newsom while tirelessly working on important issues in the background. For now, being well-positioned to perform the job she has for four more years, Kounalakis deserves reelection.

This story was originally published September 29, 2022 at 6:00 AM.