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On a day that millions of Americans in other parts of the country turned the electoral map red by electing a sea of Republicans, California voters stayed true blue.

And, in a year where a lot of voters wanted to throw the bums out and get rid of career politicians, Californians rejected a pair of wealthy and former Silicon Valley CEOs in favor of a couple of longtime politicians.

The rest of the country was experiencing a revolution. In California, it was more like a "retro-lution." Familiarity did not necessarily breed contempt. In fact, it helped put a couple of high-profile victories in the Democratic column.

Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, who has been in government for 34 years -- as a county supervisor, member of the House of Representatives and U.S. senator -- defeated her Republican opponent, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who electrified the GOP base.

Meanwhile, Democrat Jerry Brown -- a former governor who has spent 24 years in politics serving as everything from a community college trustee to mayor of Oakland to attorney general -- beat his Republican opponent, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, more handily.

The California governor's race was always Whitman's to lose. And, sure enough, she lost it -- in spectacular fashion. At the beginning, Whitman had at least five things working in her favor. She was battle-tested thanks to a tough primary with a Republican challenger. She had an enormous amount of personal wealth, enough to allow her to spend a whopping $140 million of her own money on the quixotic bid to become chief executive of the Golden State.

She was running against a candidate who had taken all sides of so many issues that it wasn't clear which parts of the Democratic base he could count on for support. She was running in a year when, in most places, the Democratic brand was wildly unpopular. And speaking of brands, she was affiliated with one -- eBay -- that is generally well-respected and elicits a positive response from the public.

So then why did Whitman lose? For one thing, she never connected with voters and that hurt her when the Brown campaign started pushing the message that she was this rich empress who lived in a bubble and couldn't relate to average Californians. For another, she never proved she was up to the job of being governor of the nation's most populous state.

As one California voter on CNET put it: “Meg came across as someone so different and out of touch with most Californians who are struggling to make ends meet yet still are interested enough in the future of the state to vote.”

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The Republican tidal wave that swept the country wasn't strong enough to defeat Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, although the liberal lion of California politics had to admit to feeling its force during a grueling campaign against former Hewlett-Packard Co. chief executive Carly Fiorina.

Celebrating her 11th consecutive election victory, Boxer told hundreds of cheering supporters that Tuesday's win was a special one because of the opposition she overcame, including attack ads funded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

"Everything was thrown at us -- including the kitchen sink and the stove and the oven. Everything, millions of dollars of negative ads from known and unknown opponents," Boxer said.

Boxer claimed Fiorina represented a return to Republican policies from the past that had created the recession.
She also painted Fiorina as out of step with most California voters on issues ranging from abortion to gun control.

David Tapia, a television casting director from Glendale, focused on Hewlett-Packard's expansion overseas while laying off workers in the U.S., an issue Boxer had hammered Fiorina on during the campaign.

"Sending jobs out of this country is something I feel strongly about, and it really hits the American people," said Tapia, 37. "For some of us struggling to find employment, it's really hard."

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