I'm sure I discussed this topic before but this is a more in depth analysis.
The GOP of California continues to slip further into irrelevancy.
At one time in its history, The Golden State was a red state. It is the state from which the tax revolt, popularized by Governor and then President Ronald Reagan, was launched in the United States. Recently, however, the Republican Party in California has been slowly dying.
As reported by The Sacramento Business Journal, Republican registration in the state has dropped seven points over the last decade. This new data from the Public Policy Institute of California shows that 43.9 percent of the registered population are Democrats, but Republican registration has declined to 28.9 percent. In addition, independent voters are more likely to lean Democratic. Four out of 10 independents lean Democratic, versus three out of 10 who lean Republican.
Yeah remember we were the state that passed Prop 13. But over the year we found out the only people who benefited from Prop 13 were rich folks in rich areas like Orange's "South County" (the cities bordering the San Onofre wilderness minus Irvine). There were some research that showed Prop 13 contributed to a major slip in academic performance among California's student. Some have argued that the passage of Prop 30 in 2012 will alleviate some of the damage caused by Prop 13 but is has remained to be implemented.
Now the article mentioned that the GOP had lost major Congressional power in Riverside County, a former major GOP stronghold, and that Riverside County twice voted for Obama. Now, the article seems to be a little over-optimistic considering that the Democratic party only won over by a narrow margin and that there were are a lot of "other" votes that didn't get categorized. But it's also not surprising that the GOP is losing it's grip over Riverside County considering two factors: 1. the population of Whites of all ethnic identity has dropped from 65% to 61% while the population of Latinos of all races has increased from 36% to 45% 2. The huge amount of older gay men in Palms Spring.
Additionally the article failed to mention that in the past two election the GOP lost two rural county, Mono County and Alpine County. And it lost it's other urban hub in San Diego County. As far as it seems the GOP's remaining strongholds are the central valley area and northern most counties, and their major urban stronghold is still Orange County. Even in Orange County, the GOP power has slipped in "North County" (cities bordering Los Angeles County).
Now the article seems to think the GOP is dead but I'd like to remind them that at a State level the GOP is still trying to gasp for air. It's naive to think that even with the lost of "North County" Orange County that Orange is going to be Blue county. The Rich white affluent people in areas like Newport Beach (75% Republican), Laguna Beach, etc. still have political clout in our system. And even if North County votes Democratic on some issues (medical care, taxes, immigration) they still vote conservative on other issues (LGBTQ, abortion) thanks in part by the presence of a large Evangelical Christian force there.
Still the fact that the GOP lost San Diego County and Riverside County, which has a combine population of over 5 million, is a real blow to their party.