State's Geography Hews Party Line

Orinstein, a 52-year-old vegetarian who votes for Democrats and Greens, lives with her boyfriend in a rent-controlled, one-bedroom apartment near the beach. She opposes the Iraq war and supports same-sex marriage and abortion rights. She loathes President Bush.

"I wouldn't vote for him if he was the last person on Earth," she said.

Casillas, a 37-year-old conservative Republican who owns a Bakersfield tract house with his wife, supports the war. To him, same-sex marriage and legal abortion are wrong. An evangelical Christian, he goes to church every Sunday. Bush's religious faith inspires him.

"He prays before he makes decisions, and that's important to me," Casillas said.

These contrasting sentiments capture not only the national polarization that has defined the 2004 presidential campaign, but the increasingly distinct split between the two Californias: coastal and inland.

Over the last decade, Republican influence has grown more concentrated in conservative inland California -- largely the Central Valley and Inland Empire but also the Antelope Valley, the Sierra and rural north. Since 2000, Republicans have outpaced Democrats in signing up new voters in the burgeoning communities around Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto, San Bernardino and Riverside.

At the same time, Democrats have strengthened their domination of counties along California's coastline, building overwhelming advantages in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas as Latino voters have expanded the party's base. And from San Diego's beachfront suburbs to the Central Coast, Democrats have eroded Republican support among moderates, especially women.

In some ways, California's east-west split reflects America's larger cultural divide. And like the national breach, it is playing out strikingly in the presidential race. The state's coastal counties lean strongly against Bush's reelection while inland California favors the president over his Democratic rival, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry, polls show.

"The division of the United States is right here in California," said Tony Quinn, co-editor of California Target Book, a nonpartisan election guide.