The problem is that Republicans in California have responded to losing ground by moving to the fringe. The minority leader in the state senate once said that abortion was to blame for the drought and a lot of the candidates at varying levels are becoming more extreme. New England has a tradition of Republicans being moderate, but that same can't be said of California. Even when Republicans were winning California, a lot of their officeholders were quite conservative. Southern California is where much of extreme conservatism was formulated.
The state votes heavily Democratic, but it still has a great deal of hardcore conservatives who are quite vocal and would not prefer someone like them over a moderate Republican.
But even if California found a moderate popular republican like Charlie Baker for example, do you honestly think that would be enough to win
Steve Cooley was probably about the best Republicans could do for a statewide candidate, but he lost despite being D.A. of the largest county in the state. Unlike New England the statewide vote has become fairly inelastic.
