Jules Witcover, Political Reporter and Columnist, Dies at 98

Jules Witcover, a storied shoe-leather political reporter and syndicated columnist who became a Washington institution covering presidential races and political affairs for more than 68 years in The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post and other newspapers and in a shelf of books, died on Saturday at his home in Washington. He was 98.

The death was confirmed by his daughter Amy Witcover-Sandford.

From the days of manual typewriters to the age of laptop computers, Mr. Witcover interpreted America’s political scene as an analyst and eyewitness to history. He swapped tales with presidents; covered presidential campaigns, beginning in 1960; recorded the rise and fall of Richard M. Nixon; and was steps away when a gunman killed Senator Robert F. Kennedy in a Los Angeles hotel in 1968.

Mr. Witcover’s column, “Politics Today,” written five days a week for years with Jack Germond, appeared in The Washington Star from 1977 to 1981, when The Star folded. It then ran in The Baltimore Sun and up to 140 other papers from 1981 to 2005, when it was terminated in a cutback, and was later syndicated three times a week by Tribune Media Services. Mr. Germond died in 2013, but Mr. Witcover continued writing it until he retired in 2022.

Colleagues and critics called Mr. Witcover one of the nation’s best political reporters — rivaling R.W. Apple Jr. of The New York Times and David Broder of The Washington Post — and an insider whose depth went beyond the current crop of public officials and candidates into the history and ethics of politics, and to speechwriters, publicists, lobbyists and others in behind-the-scenes supporting casts.

He was featured in “The Boys on the Bus,” Timothy Crouse’s 1973 book about pack campaign journalism, the old road show of poker games, pounding typewriters and all-night boozing. He fit right in, but he was one of the heavyweights.