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Half the things you mention do seem to be mistakes (though not exactly the egregious errors you make them out to be - "failure to spend as much money as he said he would"? the horror!), which if committed by some other candidate in a state with a reasonably fair media would be no big deal. (Yes Simon accused Davis of hi-jinx, but Davis did the exact same to Simon! And guess which was reported with more indignation.)

The other half are things which are ultimately beyond his control or due to a biased media. Did he really "fail to push" the power crisis or did the media just not pay attention to his "pushing", or even try to defuse it and rush to Gray's defense? If half of Californians are so partisan Dem that they're gonna pull the lever for Gray no matter what, then what good is "pushing the power crisis"?

I guess I just have a hard time blaming Simon for the fact that a large proportion of Californians are knee-jerk partisan Democrats. That's not his fault. He didn't win because a large number of voters don't want a Republican governor under any circumstances. If that makes him a "bad candidate" then the only "good" Republican governor candidates in California will have to be Democrats. Maybe Jerry Brown could run? :-)