The author suggests there is hope that it won't be the case for long, as most of the people who are leaving (or want to leave) identify as Republicans or Conservatives. Where the study he cited has any validity, only time will tell. Further down in the article was this morsel: > The results also suggest, however, that a political revolution that reverses the direction of California government is becoming increasingly difficult because it’s experiencing the state version of the Curley Effect. That phrase, coined by economists Edward Glaeser and Andrei Shleifer, describes how big-city mayors like James Michael Curley in Boston in the early twentieth century and Coleman Young in Detroit in the mid-to-late twentieth century managed to solidify their political dominance, even as their cities deteriorated because their policies drove out the people most likely to vote against them. That may explain why, despite California facing rising homelessness, increasing drug use, outbreaks of infectious diseases, blackouts, soaring housing costs, and high energy prices, voters and elected officials endorse still-higher taxes and fees, lighter penalties for crimes like drug use and shoplifting, and a government takeover of bankrupt power company Pacific Gas & Electric.