Oh I understand his amount of room in CA. I was just asking why is his approval from the Republicans so low.
Pretty much anywhere where there is a clear and overwhelming majority party, the minority party is going to skew in its direction from a relative standpoint. Democrats in Oklahoma are going to be more conservative as a whole than Democrats nationally; Republicans in California will be more liberal. I've always assumed that this is the collective manifestation of the most basic of political survival mechanisms.
Utah Democrats say hi.
As do Hawaii and Rhode Island Republicans
I think there's a difference between virtual permanent minorities like California and Maryland versus states where the minority party is almost nonexistent (like Utah, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Idaho, etc). The California Republican Party still has representation in different parts of the state. On the other hand, does the Utah Democratic Party have representation outside of Salt Lake or Summit Counties? There's a difference between 2-1 supermajorities and 4-1 or 5-1 or even worse. At the latter levels, those parties become very localized on the area(s) they represent.
