Your poorly sourced article talks about White Christian evangelicals and Roman Catholics, not political conservatives. Oh, and it says they DIDN'T stay home.
Pathetic.
Republican voters didn't show up at the polls
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/10/BAGSJMA78G1.DTL
"California's Republican voters stayed home in droves on election day, as preliminary figures show voter turnout falling well below the state average in some of the most reliably GOP parts of the state.
Although the final totals won't be known for weeks, election day turnout in Fresno, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and SanDiego counties, which all have Republican pluralities, ran as much as 10 percentage points below the state's 44 percent average turnout.
"The turnout in Republican counties was low compared to the turnout in counties where Democrats hold the edge,'' said Patrick Dorinson, a spokesman for the state Republican Party. "The conservative Republican base didn't show up.''