CA might be an artifact of SoCal formerly being Republican. For awhile the Dem bench in SoCal was legitimately thin. Tom Bradley had his shot and failed twice. So for a while the Bay Area did deservedly dominate the state party.
It’s certainly due to wealth as well. In the previous era, the only Democrats in SoCal were those in Black and Latino areas. There were no Katie Porters. Wealthy areas vote in primaries and wealthy areas have the disposable income to donate to campaigns. It’s easy to see how the Bay Area would punch above its weight in primaries.
This dynamic continues to this day. The Dem base in SoCal is still predominantly Latino and downscale versus the now extremely wealthy Bay Area. Not as stark as it was previously, but the Bay Area still punches above its weight. 2024 Senate will be interesting. Porter seems very likely to run and she’ll have tons of money. SoCal could defeat the SF machine’s choice.
The interesting thing right now is that for a brief moment, the Bay Area is lacking in clearly rising politicians. This is the product of half the crop already getting advancements in state and national positions, and the other half being 70 years old or so cause they got elected in that 90s era. The three names currently on the list are Khanna, who seemingly lacks any friends beyond his donors and district voters; Breed, who is getting sucked into the morass of local politics thanks to Housing policy; and Swalwell, who is kinda a has-been thanks to 2020. The most impressive candidates are all from SoCal. So we might have an unusual situation where the Bay Area Liberal Block lines up like normal, but this time behind the SoCal candidate they have the most affinity for.
Which impressive candidates are you talking about in Southern California? I can't think of any other than Katie Porter. Every southerner in statewide elective office is there because they were appointed by Gavin Newsom and I'm not aware of any of them having any political identity apart from him.
