Outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom, in a parting act of office, appointed his former spokesperson Nathan “Nate” Ballard to California’s state historical resources commission, as announced via a late Friday press release.
Ballard was sentenced for misdemeanor “corporal injury” against his wife and child abuse stemming from a 2020 incident in which he allegedly drunkenly smashed his then-wife’s head into a glass door and sat atop his 4-year-old daughter with a pillow.
He pleaded no contest and avoided incarceration and was bolstered by a bevy of supportive letters to the court, including correspondences from former interim Mayor Mark Farrell and former city Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier. He told the San Francisco Standard that his former wife had engaged in a campaign of “major lies.”
He was in 2021 sentenced to four years probation and ordered to have no contact with his former wife and two of his children for six years.
Ballard, a former deputy city attorney, served as then-Mayor Newsom’s spokesperson from 2007 to 2009. He subsequently joined with former Mayor Willie Brown spokesperson P.J. Johnston to form one of the city’s elite public relations and consultancy agencies.
Ballard on Friday evening texted that he had “applied” for the post and was “honored” to be chosen. “I am grateful for the opportunity to serve. I have lived in California for 55 of my 57 years and I am keenly aware of the tension between our urgent need for housing and our duty to protect the places we love that define California’s history.”
Asked about those who would object to his appointment given the allegations against him, Ballard texted, “I understand where they are coming from. During my years in government and campaigns, there were times I treated an opponent’s worst moment as one of my better opportunities.”
“Why elevate perpetrators of abuse?” said Ivy Lee, the head of the San Francisco Mayor’s Office for Victims’ Rights. “When people in power do that, it shows us what they really think about survivors. And it’s not much. Survivors deserve better.”
When Farrell’s support for Ballard became an issue during Farrell’s 2024 mayoral campaign, Ballard professed his innocence to local media and explained why he took a plea deal.
“My primary goal was to spare my daughter from testifying against her mother, and I also wanted to spare my older children from further humiliation,” he told the Standard in 2024.
Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for comment. The State Historical Resources Commission is a nine-member state review board responsible for identifying and preserving California’s cultural heritage.
Nadia Rahman, former president of the San Francisco Women’s Political Committee, said that the appointment was “egregious” and fit a pattern of Ballard seeking to ingratiate himself into state political circles.
Rahman said political maneuvers like this are “exactly why there is assault and abuse and violence” in local and state politics. “He should not be appointed to a body,” she said. “This sets him off on a road of normalizing his behavior and reintroducing him to powerful political circles in California.”
Beverly Upton, the executive director of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium, said the following when informed of the appointment: “Do you know which commission? The Governor’s Commission on Gender Based Violence? Oh wait, there isn’t one.”
