I wrote this in response to this diary reflecting on the loss of 73 at redstate, but I think it stands on its own well enough.

1) The Special election itself was a bad forum for any proposition.  Normally, special elections get low turnout, but because of the way Arnold handled himself, there was high turnout. 6.6 million was way too high for any of the conservative props to pass.  People were motivated to make sure props didn’t pass.  Heck, both 78 & 79 failed.  You would figure that at least one of those would have pass.  There was a presumption towards no on tuesday.

Conservatives are outnumbered in the state.  If 73 was going to pass it needed to have people who came in to vote for just it.  If that were the case, 73 would have at least slightly more votes.  That was not the case:

Prop  #votes
73  6595691
74  6649942
75  6643506
76  6637715
77  6594017
78  6541956
79  6474566
80  6371500

2) Arnold was not going to help anybody.  Arnold didn’t appear on commercials for his own propositions.  He had several other speakers arguing for his propositions, 1 by 1.  But the only ad he did himself in the weeks leading up to the election was one timed to pull news away from a bad poll.

California is a pro-choice state. It would be near impossible for a true pro-life governor to be elected.  Arnold isn’t a social conservative himself, and one shouldn’t expect there to be a social conservative gov in CA for a while.

But I have one larger problem with your post:

 Contrast with Governor Schwarzenegger, who has more or less abandoned California conservatives wholesale. He is a leftist on the environment. He is a leftist on life issues. And he resolutely refuses to empower, appoint, or consistently consult with California conservatives in the course of his governance. The inevitable result is Tuesday’s debacle.

Perhaps Arnold truely is a leftist(?) on those issues (note that Arnold did officialy endorse 73 though). Your statement that “moderation” is killing the GOP seems a bit harsh, to say the least. We have seen what happens when strict conservatives run in California:

Boxer (D) 6,955,728 57.8%
Jones (R) 4,555,922 37.8%

If parental notification is to pass, try just adding parental notification without all the strings that were in 73.  Now, I am pro-choice, and a “liberal”, but I actually think it would have had a chance if given better circumstances.