I want to hear that the California Attorney General, Bill Lockyer, has been voted out.
Personally, I think coattails are really a combination of coattails and bootstraps. A good and popular top-of-the-ticket candidate will help any other same-party candidate if that secondary candidate pulls himself up by the bootstraps and creates a campaign that allows him to ride the coattails. In other words, a campaign that does nothing can't win, but a campaign that prepares for victory can take advantage of the coattails. I might not be making any sense.
I would love to see Lockyer gone as well, but I think it's more likely for Republicans in statewide offices to take the open seats (Controller, Secretary of State, Insurance Commissioner) than to beat an incumbent. Californians love to split their tickets, and they'll hop around thinking that divided government is good government.
We can hope for some gains in the Legislature, however, should Simon do well. I think Simon needs 48% to win the election, and with 48% statewide the Assembly will keep its 30 Republican seats and possibly gain one. The Senate should gain one. (Remember, the gerrymandered districts are AWFUL for Republicans.) However, I think that for every point above 48% that Simon gets, Republicans will gain 1 assembly seat. If Simon gets 51%, I think Republicans in the assembly could have 33 seats, which will bring us above what we had in 1992 before our 1994 majority victory. For every seat we get, the more negotiating room we have with Democrats to hold the line on taxes. And, with a Republican governor, the Democrats won't be risking the bad votes knowing they will be vetoed (like the SUV tax).
Anyway, I'm optimistic. Davis has GOT to go.