CATE CASTONGUAY (Marin County office) is the Director of the firm's Political Reporting Unit. She supervises two managers, a national compliance coordinator, and a unit of eight Political Reports Specialists who are responsible for preparing complicated federal, state and local campaign and lobby disclosure reports for clients nationwide. The Unit also handles the bookkeeping, payrolls and taxes for large statewide and local California ballot measures, multi-state and federal PACs and non-profit organizations.

Ms. Castonguay joined Nielsen Merksamer after an extensive academic, corporate and political career, including, Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California Government Relations and Public Affairs Headquarters, staffer to a California State Senator and U.S. Congressman and policy consultant to LA Mayor Riordan’s Commission on Children, Youth & Families. Ms. Castonguay also developed and supervised field operations and fundraising for several federal and state election campaigns.

She received her BA from the University of California at Santa Barbara and her Masters from Boston College, both in Political Science.