Unfortunately, one cannot be a fiscal Conservative and a social Liberal at the same time. Those are mutually-exclusive goals; especially in California.
I'm a
libertarian (note the size of the "el") and I live in California. My exposure to normal middle-class people who vote Democrat (I'm talking outside of San Francisco) in this state is mostly that they are completely opposed to Conservative social goals. They all hate high taxes and mispending, but are more afraid of the "religious right" boogeyman. Prop 13 is still very popular out here, as you might expect with the high home prices.
The Rep Party in this state is completely incompetent. For example, instead of embracing Arnold, they still ran McClintock who siphoned off enough Republican votes to potentially scuttle the deal if there hadn't been enough
traditional Democrats voting for Arnold. The RP in this state is hung up on principle. What good is principle when you are getting your clock cleaned 24/7 by the Dems? Go have a look at the
Libertarian website. They are "The Party of Principle". They are also the party of irrelevance, now down to half their membership since W took office. Well, the RP in California finds themselves in the same tough spot. When you have the votes, you can have principle. Get the votes first, and do it on one thing even Democrats agree upon - the Dems have been in power too long and cannot be trusted with the purse strings.
For example, instead of embracing Arnold, they still ran McClintock who siphoned off enough Republican votes to potentially scuttle the deal if there hadn't been enough traditional Democrats voting for Arnold. The party tried to get McClintock to drop, but he wouldn't do it. Wasn't much they could do, short of pulling something illegal. They did get Simon and Uberroth to pull out.
I was so darn proud of my party in this election! They darn sure did all they could do to help get these props passed. I have never seen them work harder, so I disagree with you entirely. The problem is the Unions strong armed, and I mean that literally, and downright LIED as usual scaring the voters, and intimidating their members as always. The Republicans gave their all!!!!