Voters were much more toward the middle, even toward the right than they are nowadays. No where near as radically liberal as today, acknowledged. Sacramento has always been a problem, but then the demoncraps weren't completely corrupt, and the liberal infiltration into the republican party was in its infancy. As Karaoke mentioned earlier in the thread, the Petey Wilson years hurt us badly, with so many betrayals of the more conservative wing of the party. In my memory it wasn't the that PW was looking for the middleground so much that he was taking advantage of the conservative base, taking them for granted, promising and then breaking the promise.
The task isn't easy, but it can be done. It will not be done by denigrating fellow republicans. It can not be done by seeking to destroy any candidate who doesn't meet some whackjob's description of a conservative. The posters who I suggest are fifth columnists simply put on the facade of a rabid right-winger in order to divide the base. Anybody that pulls this nonsense in a general election needs to be called on it.