John Wildermuth is a reporter who has spent more than 34 years writing about California, its people and its politics. He worked for 23 years at the San Francisco Chronicle, mostly as a political writer, but also worked for newspapers in El Centro, Whittier and Pasadena. He was born and raised in San Francisco, went to college in Los Angeles and has spent plenty of time on most of the major and minor roads and highways in California.