After midterm wipeout, California Republican Party drifts closer to irrelevance

For a party in free fall the last two decades, California Republicans learned that it's possible to plunge even further.

The Republicans lost every statewide office in the midterm election - in blowout fashion - and Democrats re-established their supermajority in the state Legislature, allowing them to legislate as they see fit.

After major defeats in Orange County and the Central Valley, two longtime strongholds, Republicans will have a significantly smaller presence on Capitol Hill. (Democrats hold both Senate seats.) The Republican Party won't even have enough lawmakers in California's 53-member House delegation to field a nine-person