Breitbart notes that Governor Jerry Brown is cruising to re-election victory with a 16 point lead in California despite having only a small advantage among independents and losing the white vote. Author William Bigelow notes that the "huge lead California Governor Jerry Brown holds over his challenger, Neel Kashkari, can be attributed to one salient factor: Brown's massive lead among Latino voters. The poll's data show Brown is winning 73% of votes from Latinos, as opposed to 19% for Kashkari. [ Brown's lead is all from Latinos, Kashkari Leads Among Whites , October 24, 2014]

Unfortunately, once you look past the headline you see, "Even more remarkably, among white voters, Kashkari actually leads Brown by one percentage point." Why is this "remarkable?"

We've been noting at VDARE for some time that the GOP simply can not win without increasing its share of the white vote. Even in states like California, there are still more white registered voters than Latinos. As the Public Policy Institute of California noted in August 2014, "Whites make up only 44% of California’s adult population but represent 62% of the state’s likely voters. In contrast, Latinos comprise 34% of the adult population but just 17% of likely voters." [California's Likely Voters by Mark Baldassare, Dean Bonner, and Jui Shrestha]

Therefore, the real condemnation of Kashkari's pointless campaign is that he has provided nothing for California's white voters. Not surprisingly, California voters, given the choice between a political dinosaur and an empty suit, don't care about the election. As Bigelow's article notes,

PPIC noted that in the 2010 gubernatorial election, the “enthusiasm meter” registered 53%, and the same meter registered at 61% for the presidential election. This year, enthusiasm for the gubernatorial election registered 40%. PPIC said there was a 37% plunge in voters in 2014 compared to 2010.

Kashkari was promoted by the GOP Establishment as necessary to defeat populist candidate Tom Donnelly. In fact, the party bigwigs enthusiastically campaigned against Donnelly because they were afraid the media might call them names

Apparently, what voters are really carrying out for in the state with the highest poverty rate in the country is the gentle stewardship of a banker from Goldman Sachs. In fact, sophomoric dweeb George Will chuckled about the Republicans running a minority against the "old white guy" and hailing the "immigrants’ son who plucked up Goldwater’s banner of conservatism with a Western libertarian flavor." Incredibly, he called Kashkari California's Goldwater. [Neel Kashkari could be California's Goldwater, Washington Post, July 23, 2014]

The only similarity between Kashkari and Goldwater is they both got crushed on election day. And unlike with Goldwater, Kashkari doesn't herald the birth of a New Republican Majority. He represents how the Republican Party systematically destroyed itself. What's remarkable is that Kashkari is winning any white votes at all.