Independent practice & publication
Where policy, reputation and public trust meet.
Policy Affairs is the advisory practice and publication of Joshua G. Townsend — a California-barred attorney and communications strategist with 15 years of policy, crisis and litigation communications experience inside one of the world's most heavily regulated industries.
What I watch
New technology is being regulated in public.
California increasingly sets the rules that other states and companies end up following — on AI, privacy, data infrastructure and more. Those rules are shaped as much by public trust, media narratives and coalition politics as by statutory text.
That is the space I write about, talk to people about, and advise on.
AI regulation
State and federal AI law — frontier-model transparency like California's SB 53, rulemaking, and how companies explain themselves to regulators.
Privacy & data
CPPA rulemaking, CCPA/CPRA enforcement, data brokers — where compliance obligations turn into public narratives.
Public trust & reputation
What polling and public sentiment say about technology and institutions, and why backlash moves faster than policy.
Litigation & enforcement
Attorney-general actions, lawsuits and settlements — and the communications that run alongside them.
Federal vs. state
Preemption, patchworks and the question of who sets the rules when Washington and Sacramento disagree.
The Sacramento ecosystem
Committees, coalitions, lobbying disclosures and the people who make California policy move.
Latest
Essays, conversations and notes.
The first essay is in progress. Essays will appear here every two weeks, with a monthly interview series with people working in policy, government affairs and communications.
Let's talk
I'm in listening mode.
I'm moving to Sacramento and talking to people who work in policy, government affairs, public affairs and journalism, especially in California. If you'd be willing to spend 20 minutes on what's changing in your corner of the field, I'd welcome the conversation.