California Republicans woke up Wednesday with a political hangover. Nationally, they celebrated the GOP's taking control of Congress, but their dismal showing in California gave them a lingering headache.

Many of them wondered how they missed the national wave - and differed on which direction to go next.

They lost nearly every statewide office, drubbed by double digits in most of the races. Meg Whitman couldn't win the governorship despite straddling the political middle and spending a record $160 million. Carly Fiorina couldn't roust Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, despite tacking right and exploiting Boxer's low approval ratings.

For months, party officials boasted that their ticket was its most diverse ever. It included a pro-choice former corporate executive (Whitman); an anti-abortion ex-CEO (Fiorina); a pair of very conservative legislators (Tony Strickland and Mimi Walters); a not-so-conservative Latino who had been appointed to the job he sought (Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado); and a charismatic African American former NFL player turned businessman (Damon Dunn).

All of them lost. The only statewide candidate with a chance of winning is Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, trailing San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris by a fraction of a percentage point in the attorney general's race.

Republicans will spend the next few months soul searching.

"I don't have an answer," said Duf Sundheim, a Palo Alto attorney and former head of the state GOP. "We had candidates who ran strong races and still lost."

Democrats' registration

Part of the reason, as Fiorina said in her concession speech Wednesday in Irvine, is that "we could not overcome the (2.3 million) registration advantage the Democrats have, particularly in Los Angeles."

Whitman started making in-roads among Latino voters by spending $12 million in Spanish-language advertising and outreach. But any goodwill evaporated in October after Whitman struggled to handle revelations that she had employed - and fired - an undocumented immigrant as her housekeeper for nine years.

"It's a white party" in an increasingly diverse state, said Robert Huckfeldt, a professor of political science at UC Davis. "What you saw in this election was a lot of partisan voters coming home to their party."

Every Republican paid for the Legislature's agreement to raise taxes as part of the 2009 state budget deal. "It damaged the brand," state Republican Party Chair Ron Nehring said.

"It shouldn't surprise Republicans that when they stand for nothing, the voters cease to stand with them," said Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove (Sacramento County), speaking specifically of Whitman, whom he declined to endorse.

Top Fiorina strategist Marty Wilson said candidates like Whitman, Fiorina and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who were first-time candidates when they ran for top jobs, haven't developed the experience of Democrats like Gov.-elect Jerry Brown and Boxer, who spent time in lower offices before moving up the ticket.

"Our candidates don't seem to be growing organically, which can leave the party with a short bench for future races," he added.

Destined to lead

Added McClintock: "You can't ignore public policy for most of your adult life, fail even to lift a finger to vote in one election after another and then decide that somehow you were destined to lead the state through one its greatest periods of crisis."

Another problem is that the state GOP hasn't been able to match the Democrat Party's fundraising, which left them short of cash to back their candidates and support get-out-the-vote efforts, Sundheim said. "That means we have to look for candidates who can self-fund their campaigns, which brings a whole other set of problems," he said.

Mindy Finn, who advised the Senate campaign of former South Bay Rep. Tom Campbell, who lost to Fiorina in the June primary election, said state Republicans "are going to have to look at the results of this election and ask themselves why they fall all over candidates who can self-fund."

Courting small donors online is important, Finn said, even "for a candidate like Whitman who doesn't need them. She said she was an outsider, but she never developed that insurgent candidate energy because she didn't have a strong grassroots base."

Chronicle staff writer John Wildermuth reported from Irvine.