The state threw three liberal supreme court justices off the CSC as recently as the 1980’s. Jerry Brown was an aberration. Reagan, George Deukmajian, and Pete Wilson were the norm. California was born as a liberal nutland in 1992, when they voted for Clinton.
California has always been one of the most liberal states in the country....I grew up there. What passes and passed for conservative there would get a candidate laughed at in a state like Mississippi...... heck my very liberal friend from Illinois came to visit one time and we went to California, she was in shock when she left... what passes for a Republican there (that can get elected to higher office) is Arnie and I wouldn’t relish him for POTUS in a million years.