Opinion: As nation veers blue, is California reddening?

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Could Republicans win four of seven statewide races? It’s a possibility. Gov. Schwarzenegger, Insurance Commissioner-elect Steve Poizner are cruising to comfortable double-digit victories, as is Attorney General-elect Jerry Brown and Treasurer-elect Bill Lockyer (all four were endorsed by The Times). A fifth, Times-endorsed Democrat John Chiang, also seems headed to victory for controller.

The two remaining are up in the air as of press time. For Lt. Governor, widely seen as the most competitive of the statewide contests, Democrat (and Times-endorsed) John Garamendi was clinging to a 48.0%-46.6% lead over Republican Tom McClintock, with 59.4% of precincts reporting. And Democrat Debra Bowen was up by three-tenths a percent over Times-endorsed Republic Bruce McPherson for secretary of state.

So which votes haven’t been counted? San Bernardino County hasn’t reported any returns, nor has liberal Monterey and Santa Cruz. Conservative-leaning San Diego has only reported 39%, liberal Alameda is at 43%, and L.A. still needs to count more than half its votes.