Schwarzenegger may have been elected as a Republican, but he governed as a Democrat, which would change your numbers somewhat. Equally important is who controls the legislature–which has been in Democrat hands for 40 years, excepting 1995 and 1996.
You are correct, San Diego Republican mayors don’t exactly act conservative, especially Dick Murphy who caved to municipal unions a decade ago and gave away outrageous pension benefits now starting to hit the fan. Likewise our current “Republican” mayor Sanders who recently pushed for a sales tax hike and more recently put off budget cutting until next summer. Some conservative.
So…more important than party labels is whether liberals or real conservatives are in power, and the sentiment of the electorate in the state. On that score, liberals in California should be very happy. Not only did they increase their power here while getting shellacked in the rest of the country, they apparently hold the sympathies of the electorate. The demographic trends point to a more and more left-leaning population, as we drive middle-class taxpayers out and attract tax users. With 12% of the nation’s population and 32% of the welfare recipients, our electoral trend is clear. We will continue to tax a smaller and smaller share of the population, which will continue to flee to friendlier business climates, worsening our state budget deficit, increasing calls for more revenue, etc.
With the nation’s third worst unemployment rate and seemingly no clue as to what caused it, our state officeholders, now uniformly Democrat, get the full reins of power. Add to that the power to pass a budget with only 50% instead of two-thirds, the clout of public employee unions, most of the media in the state, a swell anti-global warming program, an increased grip on the senate and assembly, and above all an increasingly liberal electorate and the liberals have to be very pleased. Future comparisons of California versus other states promise to get even more interesting.
