With Barack Obama as an African American who has secured the Democratic Party presidential nomination, much has been written lately about the Bradley Effect as it applied to the 1982 California governor's race.

The element that has surprised me thus far is that, as someone who was born, grew up and voted in Southern California for years, I have seen that the Bradley Effect has not been discussed any time that I saw it written about or alluded to as it developed in full measure.

The late Tom Bradley was a popular African American politician who rose through the ranks of a track scholarship and resulting degree from UCLA, where Jackie Robinson was a classmate, to a lieutenant's position in the Los Angeles Police Department and, after attending law school at night, a degree from Southwestern University.

Bradley lived his entire life in the Leimert Park area of Los Angeles, which was predominantly white for years and ultimately became primarily African American in population.