Aiming for a supermajority in California legislature, Democrats play the Trump card

If the state emerges after Nov. 8 with a Democratic supermajority, the only consolation prize for conservatives will be the reality that some of those Democrats will be moderate, pro-business types willing to buck liberals in their own party.

But that doesn’t much cushion the fall for Republicans — the once-dominant party of Ronald Reagan that’s now struggling to maintain a voice in Sacramento.

“What already looked to have been a very steep uphill challenge for legislative Republicans in California is now looking like an almost insurmountable obstacle,” said Dan Schnur, director of the Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California, who spent decades working for Republican politicians. “There is simply not enough information available to voters about most Assembly and Senate candidates to disassociate them from the top of the ticket.

“Most voters translate that ‘R’ next to their name as ‘Friend of Trump.’”