The labor leader behind California’s billionaire tax showdown

OAKLAND, California — When Gavin Newsom stood before a room of economic elites in New York last December and derided a “single labor leader” pushing a tax on California billionaires, he never said his name. He didn’t need to.

Everyone in California politics knows of Dave Regan, the legendarily combative health care union chief who has spent decades wielding California’s ballot initiative system against the health care industry.

But his newest mission is on a scale orders of magnitude larger.