I think the legacy of Reagan plays a major role in the Right's Californiphobia, if I might coin a word- these people always assume that, once they've won power in a particular area, they are simply entitled to keep that power for the rest of the eternity.

In this case, they seemingly believe that, because Reagan won two terms there, that the GOP carried the state in seven out of eight presidential elections between 1960 and 1984, and because Proposition 13 passed in a landslide there in 1978, it was illegitimate for them ever to lose ground in the state after that.