SAN DIEGO — As a Mexican American born and raised in Central California, I started paying attention to politics as a 15-year-old high school freshman.

Even at that age, I figured out three things: those who looked like me were treated as inferior by white people; high-paying and prestigious jobs were off limits to Mexican Americans; and one way to end "Juan Crow" might be to start electing our own kind and put brown faces in high places.

Like, say, the California governor's mansion.

Now I'm 59. With Californians poised to elect former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra as the state's first Mexican American governor since Romualdo Pacheco stepped down in 1875, you could say that I've waited for this moment for more than 40 years.

Sadly, I thought it would feel bigger.

For one thing, Becerra's Republican opponent — former Fox News host Steve Hilton — has turned out to be a handful. The unconventional candidate is running an unorthodox campaign. A transplant from Great Britain who worked as a communications strategist for former British Prime Minister David Cameron, he knows how to play the game of politics. He arrived in California just 14 years ago and has been a U.S. citizen for only five. Yet he is also a white male with enough self-esteem to believe that serving as governor of the nation's most populous state would be a good entry-level position.

That reminds me. Republicans like to say that electing Becerra, a Democrat, would continue 16 years of failed Democratic policies in California.

Maybe so. But electing Becerra would break a streak of white men — representing both parties — running this state for 151 years. In that respect, he is the change agent.

The problem is that Becerra might just be the calmest, quietest, most low-key, most missing-in-action change agent in the history of California politics.

Given the fact that Democrats account for 45% of registered voters in California compared to only 25% who are registered as Republican (with most of the remainder opting to identify themselves as having "no party preference"), and given the fact that California Republicans have spent the last 30 years alienating and repelling Latino voters by spewing racism because they feel overrun by brown-skinned immigrants, this race was always going to be Becerra's to lose.

And believe it or not, he might just be losing it.

The polls say I'm wrong. A recent Berkeley IGS/Los Angeles Times poll has Becerra at 55% and Hilton at 37%, with 7% of voters still undecided.

Given that Becerra has a thick political resume and that Hilton has never held elective office, and given that Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 2 to 1 in this state, an 18-point lead is nothing to write home about. Shouldn't it be 30 points?

Besides, polls don't measure momentum or excitement. Both seem to be with Hilton, a professional communicator who, it turns out — one-on-one — is more likable than his intensely unlikable party.

And whereas Becerra seems to be in hiding and waiting out the clock, Hilton is everywhere. He spent the primary courting MAGA voters and chasing President Donald Trump's endorsement by refusing to say if the 2020 election was stolen from the Cry-Baby-In-Chief. Now, in the general, he is eager to show Latinos that he is our best amigo. The Brit is having taco mixers and literally cruising with lowriders in East Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, Becerra is playing it safe. He won't answer questions from the media and accuses reporters of parroting talking points from the White House. He is afraid of "gotcha" questions, and refuses to answer for his record in office. He appears to be committing the Democratic Party's cardinal sin of taking their voters for granted. He is emphasizing his calm and rational demeanor at a time when Democrats want brawlers who will walk up to Republicans — including Trump — and punch them in the throat. He seems to embody the downside of doing something for more than 40 years: instead of getting better at it, you can become robotic, burn out and mail in your performance. Finally, he refused for weeks to agree to debates with Hilton, which gave the impression that he was afraid to mix it up with the underdog; the Republican taunted him for it.

The first gubernatorial debate will be on Sept. 30 from Los Angeles, and it will be televised on CNN.

Campaigns have a way of lifting the curtain and showing voters who candidates really are. Unfortunately for Democrats, what this one is revealing about Xavier Becerra is not pretty.

To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Austin Loveing at Unsplash