I used to think that California by nature was simply leftist, supported by long-term grooming of special interest groups, such as government workers, leftist stereotypes of Latinos, etc…
And this may be partially true
But then I realized, you can’t easily plan long-term nor have people behave how they are supposed to. California’s political class still needs a guaranteed lock-down, go-to method for political control. And that is a corrupt electoral system and direct voter fraud.
The California I grew up in wasn't leftist. When I was a teenager, we had a Republican governor, two Republican US Senators, some of the most conservative Representatives in the nation, and a solidly conservative schools chief. The mayor of Los Angeles was a Democrat who was more conservative than most Republicans. The atmosphere was pro-free enterprise and taxes and regulations were low.
It was Ronald Reagan who unwittingly turned our state blue when he opened the floodgates to illegal immigration by signing the Simpson-Mazzoli immigration reform act.