Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Alexei Koseff and Sophia Bollag

No. 65

Speaking of Swalwell…every political reporter dreams of doing stories that have a huge impact on readers. But few can imagine their work having the kind of impact the stories San Francisco Chronicle reporters Alexei Koseff and Sophia Bollag had on this year’s gubernatorial campaign and perhaps even California’s future. At one point in early April it seemed that then-Congressman Eric Swalwell was on his way to the November runoff. Within days of their story reporting a litany of accusations of sexual harassment and assault against Swalwell, the congressman was out. The work Koseff (now with the Washington Post) and Bollag did was classic shoe leather journalism, shepherding anxious sources through what can be a terrifying process, checking and rechecking everything along the way until they were sure they had the entire story down cold. It is not remotely hyperbole that their reporting could change the future of this state, given how different the race could have been if the allegations against Swalwell had come out after the June primary. We’ll never know, and thanks to them we didn’t have to find out.