An underrated aspect of California, I suspect, is that California's "political class" is not all that representative of the state at large. For example, I seem to recall that Prop 16 was endorsed by numerous major figures, and opposed by none, yet it lost by a large margin in the general election.

If you look at the Latinos and Asians who are politically involved in California, I would predict that they are far from typical, and they're much more likely to be assimilated into the state's progressive political traditions.