Oct 8, 2026 · 28 min · 11 segments
Legendary journalist George Skelton has covered nine California governors. In our first episode, the L.A. Times columnist sizes up the governors he's known, what made them successful and whether the…
Beth RuyakHost
George SkeltonGuest
Phil WillonGuest
I thought about asking you to join me for this first podcast episode when I read your column just before the primary, and you were trying to figure out who to vote for like everybody else.
And it made me laugh because at that point in time, there were a number of front runners.
Well, it was sort of confusing because the front runner dropped out because of a sex scandal, and, um, that left some candidates where y- the best choice was the person you liked the best really.
No one was there anybody was really jumping u- up and down about this would be a great governor, but who's the most likable? And I think that's why Becerra won.
I wound up doing that because I liked the way she handled herself, quite frankly, and it didn't bother me that she had a terrible temper.
But Becerra is a likable person and certainly has the credentials for the job.
The whole governor's race was topsy-turvy because it was Eric Swalwell, that front runner who was caught up in the sex scandal.
There was a big argument within the Becerra camp about he didn't have a lot of money.
I thought about asking you to join me for this first podcast episode when I read your column just before the primary, and you were trying to figure out who to vote for like everybody else.
And it made me laugh because at that point in time, there were a number of front runners.
Well, it was sort of confusing because the front runner dropped out because of a sex scandal, and, um, that left some candidates where y- the best choice was the person you liked the best really.
No one was there anybody was really jumping u- up and down about this would be a great governor, but who's the most likable? And I think that's why Becerra won.
I wound up doing that because I liked the way she handled herself, quite frankly, and it didn't bother me that she had a terrible temper.
But Becerra is a likable person and certainly has the credentials for the job.
The whole governor's race was topsy-turvy because it was Eric Swalwell, that front runner who was caught up in the sex scandal.
There was a big argument within the Becerra camp about he didn't have a lot of money.
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