Actually it's mostly the great unwashed "undecideds" who make the difference in CA. (when I say undecideds I don't mean registered independents alone, many people who are registered as Democrats don't know what they believe) For many complex reasons they have been jumping on with the Dems, but rememeber, less than 10 years ago Reps swept the state and won control of the Assembly.
While the Dems have been nominating the far left who have benefitted from the unwashed middle voting down the Dem ticket, polls of the California electorate continue to show that it is not a hard-core liberal base. As recently as 2000 California passed the protection of marriage initiative by 62% and that included the San Francisco and LA areas in the mix. Some parts of the state were over 80% even though the measure was roundly criticized as homophobic, hateful, intolerant and right wing.
There are a number of complex reasons why the electorate has been going for the Dems. For one, Pete Wilson was a big part of the destruction of the GOP in California.
It has been a great week for the GOP here. The Dems are in free-fall. The Republicans in the Senate just 15/40 finally won on the budget. Its not a pretty budget but there wil be NO TAX INCREASES.
There are no easy answers but if we do things right for the next year you could see a turn around as we begin to look like we stand for something and appeal more to the folks who don't know what they think.