Fifty years ago this month, I excitedly joined the Los Angeles Times as the new statehouse reporter.

I never imagined that it would still be here half a century later.

There's a simple secret to making it last this long. Don't get frustrated and quit.

Another factor is luck. It means you weren't in a place where the ax of dismissal would fall. Many talented colleagues are devastated.

A lot has changed since 1974 at the Times, on Capitol Hill, and in California politics. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad.

Return the story. First, some background.

I'm a native Californian who loves our state despite its problems rooted in overcrowding in desirable places to live, especially on the south coast.

I grew up on a small Orange Ranch in Ojai (just $9,000 in 1942), raised by barely middle-class, hard-working parents who had immigrated 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 the time California offered tuition-free higher education to its residents. It has been done for generations and it should still be done. The governments of Ronald Reagan and Jerry Brown introduced tuition fees in the 1970s and 1980s, which was a despicable move.

My newspaper career began at the age of 16 at the weekly Ojai Valley News as a press cleaner and printer melting linotype cores. He also took pride in writing about high school sports for 10 cents an inch.

His big break came when he accepted a job as an assistant sports editor at the Ventura Star while attending community college. After graduating from San Jose State University, I briefly covered local government for what was then the Sunnyvale Standard, but was soon hired as a low-paid sportswriter by United Press International in San Francisco.

Here's how I came to Sacramento. I was motivated, in the wrong way, by Warren Spahn, a great pitcher for the Milwaukee Braves at the time.

While covering the Major League All-Star Game in San Francisco in 1961, a future Hall of Famer strolled over to me in the National League locker room, glared at my press pass, and said,You can give it to some people. [woman]” He used unprintable vulgar language. Then he tore the souvenir from the collar of my coat and shoved it into his pocket.

That turned me into a political writer. The next day I asked for transportation to Sacramento.

I thought there were strange people in the world of politics as well. But at least they did something that really mattered to people's lives beyond providing entertainment and escape.

I quickly realized that there are many similarities between sports and politics. Politicians don't tend to act like bastards, but arrogance and ego plague them both. To stay employed, you need to win a popularity contest.

Anyway, after the 1961 baseball season, I arrived at the UPI bureau in Sacramento. It was one week before legendary Englewood Democrat Jesse (Big Daddy) Unruh was elected Speaker of the Assembly.

It was and is like day and night.

In 1961, all 40 senators were white men.

There was only one woman among the 80 members, Democratic Rep. Pauline Davis from Plumas County. You can thank her for her highway rest stop.

There were two black members of Congress. One was Byron Rumford (D-Berkeley), who in 1963 authored a bill to eliminate racial discrimination in housing sales and rentals. It was perhaps the largest and most violent brawl ever at the California State Capitol.

Even in 1974, there were only three women in Congress. There were six black members, including Rep. Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), a brilliant political tactician who later became the longest-serving speaker. There were only five Latino and three Asian American senators.

The current 120-member Congress includes a good mix of gender, race, and ethnicity: 50 women, 39 Latinos, 13 Asian Americans, and 12 Blacks.

That's because more opportunities are opening up for women and the number of Latino and Asian American voters is increasing. California's Latinos also became politically active. And the end of gerrymandering has contributed to the diversification of Congress.

Term limits, enacted by voters in 1990, increased turnover among members and opened up slots for women and people of color. That's the positive side of term limits. The downside is that we lost many talented and experienced members with policy and legislative expertise.

There were other dramatic changes at the Capitol.

Due to a Supreme Court ruling in the 1960s, state Senate seats are allocated based on population, not geography. Previously, it was patterned after the U.S. Senate. The number of state senators in Los Angeles County jumped from one to about 14. I don't think this has resulted in Congress being more productive.

Congress became “permanent” in 1966, but its results remained in doubt.

Over Democratic opposition, voters, backed by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, ended Congress' despicable practice of gerrymandering legislative and congressional districts for partisan gain. It's very healthy.

Worse, the California Republican Party ignored warnings from Schwarzenegger that it would “die at the box office” and collapsed. The seats will not be filled. ”

Therefore, there is currently one-party rule in Sacramento. The moderate influence and thoughtful compromise necessary for a republican democracy has been lost.

California went from a purple state to deep blue, largely due to demographic changes. Latino and Asian American voters shifted to the left because many viewed the Republican Party as anti-immigrant. And the Republican Party has fallen into a position of opposing abortion rights, gun control, and environmental protections that voters support.

Who is the best governor I have ever interviewed? easy. Pat Brown is the builder of college campuses, highways and a controversial state water project that he probably couldn't sell today because of environmental concerns.

The most inspiring was Ronald Reagan, an outspoken conservative who ruled as a moderate. He raised taxes where necessary, signed the most liberal abortion rights law in the country, and protected the environment.

But when I brought him up as president, he reverted to his conservative instincts.

Fortunately, during my time there, every news organization I worked for (including the old Sacramento Union) was at its peak. Since then they have compressed or collapsed.

Newspaper closures and layoffs mean less attention to elected officials.

For me, being one of the highlights was challenging, exciting, and fun. There is no better job than cutting through the political bulls.