GOP's Future in California ? Kashkari might blaze a path even while losing

The San Jose Mercury reports:

Neel Kashkari almost certainly will lose to Gov. Jerry Brown next week, but political experts say he could leave a lasting mark on how California Republicans run for office.

Kashkari is a 41-year-old Indo-American atop the ticket of a party often seen as old, white and struggling for relevance in the increasingly diverse Golden State. He has focused on anti-poverty messages and framed improvement of public schools as a civil rights issue -- unusual in a party long associated with trickle-down economics and school vouchers. He favors same-sex marriage, abortion rights and background checks for all gun purchases.

The week he spent "undercover" as a jobless, homeless person on Fresno's streets over the summer helped cement the idea that this isn't your father's Republican campaign. Stunt or not, that wasn't something past GOP candidates for governor -- like Meg Whitman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Simon, Dan Lungren or Pete Wilson -- would have done in a million years.

"I wanted to see (if) I could run on these issues and get Republicans excited about them -- and I would argue that I have," he said during a recent interview in San Francisco, between campaign stops. "Our party has hit the rocks, and it's human nature for some people to head for the lifeboats. But I'm trying to right the ship and get the ship moving again."

The future of the GOP in California?