When Richard Nixon lost his race for California governor and delivered his famous promise, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore," every reporter in the room knew who "you" meant. It was Richard Bergholz.
It also was The Times, for which Bergholz, who died Tuesday at age 83, was then a political writer known for his tough manner, penetrating questions and fair stories.
Bergholz, whose career spanned nearly 50 years, suffered a stroke at his home in Pasadena and died at St. Luke Medical Center.
The candidates he covered constituted a who's who of American politics in the last half of the 20th century. They included Nixon, Pat Brown, Ronald Reagan, George Murphy, John Tunney, Jesse Unruh, George McGovern, Tom Bradley and George Deukmejian.
Beginning his career when political reporters were little more than mouthpieces for candidates, Bergholz broke the mold. Constantly asking questions, he grilled candidates across the political spectrum.
George Skelton, Sacramento columnist for The Times who worked with Bergholz as a reporter and editor for more than a decade, called him "unbiased and absolutely objective."
"I worked closely with him . . . and as a competitor before that--and still do not know whether he was a Republican or a Democrat," Skelton said. "I have no idea how he ever voted. And you certainly could not tell by his writing. He was as tough on one side as the other."
One of those who felt the sting of that toughness was Nixon during the California gubernatorial race in 1962.
The candidate, who had long enjoyed The Times' support under publisher Norman Chandler, clearly was not prepared for the more balanced coverage led by Bergholz after Otis Chandler took over in 1960.
During the waning days of the 1962 race, Bergholz peppered Nixon with tough questions when the candidate, apparently lagging in the polls, began suggesting that opponent Brown was soft on communism.
As David Halberstam reported in "The Powers That Be," it was just "Bergholz being Bergholz." But the tone of the questions, far more biting than anything the former vice president had encountered in Washington, got under Nixon's skin.
The day after Brown's victory, Nixon gave his famous "last press conference," which included the "kick around" remark.
Nixon went on to praise Carl Greenberg, another political reporter at The Times who had been trading off coverage of Nixon with Bergholz.
