Unlike what happened in 2010, the great Republican tide of 2014 seems not to have stopped at the Sierras.  While it will take awhile to get all the votes in, it looks like California Republicans may actually makes some gains in this election.

The best news is that GOP State Sen. Andy Vidak seems to have survived rather handily; I thought that one would be closer.  GOP Senate candidate Janet Nguyen seems like the winner in Orange County; that means Republicans will have at least 14 seats in the State Senate and the Democratic two thirds majority will be broken.

In the Assembly, Republicans seem on their way to defeating two Democrats, Assembly members Steve Fox and Sharon Quirk Silva.  And they could pick up a third Assembly seat; for the first time in years the GOP may win an Assembly seat in the Bay Area where Catharine Baker is ahead of a labor backed Democrat by 3,400 votes.  But they will lose the Assembly seat vacated by Jeff Gorell in Ventura County, where the GOP nominated a tea party extremist.  Message to Republicans; keep nominating tea party types and you are sure to lose.

So it looks like Republicans may just overturn the two thirds Democratic edge in the Assembly.  But there are still votes out there so some races are undecided.

The Congressional races may be the biggest Republican gains, but three races are razor close.   Republicans made huge congressional gains nationwide.  In California, GOP challengers, Doug Ose, Jeff Gorell and Carl DeMaio are on the cusp of victory, but the late ballots will decide these races.

But the GOP did not do everything right.  A while back I wrote that Pete Peterson for Secretary of State was the best Republican statewide opportunity.  Turns out I was right; the Republican leadership should have put money behind Peterson; they might have won a statewide race.  Instead the GOP leadership flew several kamikaze missions in unwinnable legislative races and wasted huge amounts of money on seats they could never win.

But thus far this does not look like a bad night for Republicans in California.