George Skelton celebrates 50 years covering California politics and government

Fifty years ago this month I eagerly walked into the Los Angeles Times as a newly hired reporter at the state Capitol.

I would never have imagined still being here half a century later.

There is a simple secret to staying this long: don't get angry and quit.

Another factor is luck: not being where the ax of layoffs falls. Many talented colleagues have been beaten.

A lot has changed since 1974: at The Times, on Capitol Hill, in California politics. Some have been good, some bad.

I'll get back to that. But first, some background.

I am a native Californian who loves the state despite all of its problems that stem from overpopulation of desirable places to live, especially the South Coast.

I grew up on a small orange farm in Ojai (it cost only $9,000 in 1942) and was raised by hard-working, barely middle-class parents who had emigrated from the South in search of the proverbial California dream.

I was the first in my father's family to attend high school, let alone graduate from college. This was possible because at that time California offered its residents free higher education. It has been for generations and still should. Governors. Ronald Reagan and Jerry Brown ushered in license plates in the 1970s and 1980s, a dastardly act.

My journalism career began at age 16 as a printing demon (cleaning presses, melting lead in linotypes) for the weekly Ojai Valley News. I also gloried in writing sports stories in high school for 10 cents an inch.

The big break was getting a job as assistant sports editor for the Ventura Star while attending community college. After graduating from San Jose State, I briefly covered local government for the then-Sunnyvale Standard, but was soon hired by United Press International in San Francisco as a cheap sportswriter.

That's how I got to Sacramento: I was motivated, in the wrong way, by the great pitcher Warren Spahn of the then-Milwaukee Braves.

While covering the 1961 Major League All-Star Game in San Francisco, the future Hall of Famer approached me in the National League locker room, ogled my press credential and commented, “That it's great. I can give that to some [woman].” He used unprintable vulgarity. Then she tore the souvenir from the lapel of my coat and put it in her pocket.

That turned me into a political writer. The next day I requested a transfer to Sacramento.

I assumed there were idiots in politics too. But at least they did things that were truly important in people's lives beyond providing entertainment and escape.

I soon learned that there are many similarities between sports and politics. Arrogance and ego afflict both, although politicians don't tend to act like idiots. They need to win popularity contests to stay employed.

Anyway, after the 1961 baseball season I arrived at the UPI office in Sacramento, a week before legendary Democrat Jesse (Big Daddy) Unruh of Inglewood was elected Assembly speaker.

Then and now are like night and day.

In 1961, all 40 members of the Senate were white men.

There was one female Assembly member among 80: Democrat Pauline Davis of Plumas County. You can thank it for rest stops along the highway.

There were two black members of the Assembly: one was Byron Rumford (D-Berkeley), who authored legislation in 1963 that ended racial discrimination in the sale and rental of housing. It was arguably the biggest and bitterest fight ever at the California Capitol.

Even in 1974, there were only three female legislators. There were six black members, including Assemblyman Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), a brilliant political strategist who later became the longest-serving speaker. There were only five Latino lawmakers and three Asian Americans.

Today, there is a good mix of genders, races and ethnicities in the 120-member Legislature: 50 women, 39 Latinos, 13 Asian Americans and 12 black legislators.

This is because more opportunities have opened up for women and there are many more Latino and Asian American voters. California Latinos also became more politically active. And the end of gerrymandering helped diversify the Legislature.

Term limits, enacted by voters in 1990, forced greater legislative turnover, opening up spaces for women and people of color. That's the positive side of term limits. The downside is the loss of many good, experienced legislators with experience in policy and legislation.

There have been other dramatic changes on Capitol Hill.

Due to a Supreme Court ruling from the 1960s, the distribution of state Senate seats is based on population, not geography. Previously, it had followed the model of the United States Senate. Los Angeles County's State Senate representation jumped from one to about 14. I don't think this has resulted in a more productive Legislature.

The Legislature worked “full time” in 1966, with still questionable results.

Despite Democratic objections, voters, encouraged by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, ended the Legislature's sordid practice of gerrymandering congressional and legislative districts for partisan advantage. Something very healthy.

Something bad: The California Republican Party imploded, ignoring a warning from Schwarzenegger that “we are dying at the box office. “We are not filling the seats.”

So now we have a one-party government in Sacramento. There is a loss of moderating influence and reflective engagement that is needed in a republican democracy.

California went from a purple state to a deep blue state primarily due to demographic changes. Latino and Asian American voters leaned left because many viewed Republicans as anti-immigrant. And the Republican Party got caught up in opposing abortion rights, gun control and voter-favored environmental protections.

Best governor I've ever covered? Easy. Pat Brown, the builder of college campuses, highways and the controversial state water project he probably couldn't sell today because of environmental concerns.

The most exciting: Ronald Reagan, an avowed conservative who governed as a moderate: raising taxes when necessary, signing the most liberal abortion rights law in the country, and protecting the environment.

However, he reverted to his conservative instincts when I covered him as president.

Fortunately, all the news organizations I worked for, including the former Sacramento Union, were in full swing while I was there. They have since been compressed or collapsed.

The disappearance of newspapers and staff cuts mean fewer eyes on elected officials.

For me, being one of the eyes has been challenging, exciting and fun. I couldn't ask for a better job than wading through the political bull.