I'm going to guess you've not paid a whole lot of attention to CA politics. The state's voters somehow have this reputation as a bunch of liberal hippies. But let's look at a few items that stand out in my mind: 1. Of the last ten CA governors, six were Republicans. 2. Legal weed: CA said "no". 3. Gay marriage: "no" again.

National elections, sure, the Democrat is almost a shoo-in. But it would seem that as we drift down to the state and local level, CA is a bit more conservative than the hype.

And don't forget, we now have a top 2 primary, so just because the central valley gets to pick between two R's and the coasts get to pick between two D's there may be miles and miles of practical difference between the two even if the caucus with the same party when they get to Washington or Sacramento.

That's not at all true. There are still lots of republicans at the state and municipal level, and they're often the most competent candidate. The lower you go in government, the more likely it is that someone will be personally acquainted with a politician who's running, and they'll say "I may not agree with everything she stands for, but we had a good chat and she seems like she could do the job."

But which one of them? California does non-partisan blanket primaries, so in solidly Democratic areas the general election will have two Democrats and vice versa.