California's New Voting Pattern

Daniel Weintraub reports:

If you want to understand why Republicans have all but become a permanent minority party in California, a good place to start would be an ethnic breakdown of the state's voter registration rolls.

Since 1990, the number of voters in California has grown by 2.4 million. But the state today has the same number of white voters – 10.6 million – as it did 16 years ago. Some have moved in while others moved out, some have come of age as voters while others died. But the total number has remained the same.

At the same time, however, the number of Latino votes has soared by 1.7 million. Another 700,000 new voters are Asian American. The black vote has remained constant at about 950,000.

California will probably have less white voters in 10 years.