Before I give everyone the details of this, I'd like to mention that this is not a realistic division of California, for a realistic view of California's political divisions; see californianintexas's diary.
Now that we have that out of the way, I'd like to present you with dgm's unholy atrocity that is the five states of California:
Let's get to the carnage, shall we?
State 1 (New Marin)(Blue)
Population: 3,870,989
Demographics: (White 65%, Hispanic 19%)
Partisanship (Obama 59%; McCain 38%)
Population centers: (Marin County)
Notes: You might be asking yourself, why did I name this state “New Marin”? Well, the answer is because it was originally not going to include Marin County (and was going to be a roughly 54-44 state) but at the last minute, I decided that Marin County could be taken from the San Francisio based state and moved over here to effectively create 4 totally safe Democratic states.
State 2 (San Sacramento)(Green)
Population: 4,808,296
Demographics: (58% white, 15% Asian, 17% Hispanic)
Partisanship (Obama 65%; McCain 33%)
Population centers (San Francisco, Sacramento)
Notes: Say hello to, hypothetically, the most latte-sipping, free-loving, liberal hippie state in the entire country! Interestingly, this is only the second most Democratic state of the five Californias, but it is probably the most liberal of them all (what with a good chunk of it's population being comprised of San Francisco (as well as San Mateo County).
State 3 (California Grande)(Purple)
Population: 9,472,898
Demographics: (48% White, 11% Asian, 31% Hispanic)
Partisanship (Obama 60%; McCain 38%)
Population centers: (Fresno)
Notes: This is probably the least egregious of the states I've come up with (not that that's saying much but still…) It basically takes up the entire interior of the state, as well as the costal area between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
State 4 (Angeles Anaranjados)(Red)
Population: 8,252,698
Demographics: (39% White, Black 10%, Asian 11%, Hispanic 36%)
Partisanship: (Obama 66%, McCain 32%)
Population Center: Los Angeles
Notes: If anyone thought that creating at least 4 safe states out of California would be pretty, then you were very, very wrong (well, at least if you aren't willing to cede anything to the Republicans in the fifth state). This is more or less eastern Los Angeles combined with the Republican parts of Orange and San Diego counties (which is why this state is “only” a 66% Obama state, it would've easily been over 70% otherwise).
State 5 (Los Diegos)(Yellow)
Population: 10,700,726
Demographics (40% White, 11% Asian, 41% Hispanic)
Partisanship (Obama 46%; McCain 42%)
Population centers: (Los Angeles and San Diego)
Notes: What? Ok, ok, this is a true atrocity, but at the same time this is, in many ways, the worst of all worlds for California Republicans. On the one hand, even in a bad year, it still leans Democratic, but the Republicans here are probably going to be completely unable to take advantage of it (considering the lunatics Orange County and San Diego Republicans tend to like). Yes, it's quite obvious that the only reason it's like this is to give the Democrats an advantage, but I'm actually ok with that fact!
In conclusion: These 5 states are more or less guaranteed to go Democratic at the presidential level, elect two strong Democratic Senators (with the possible exception of Los Diegos), and have majority Democratic house delegations, so a little ugliness (and city-splitting) is a small price to pay for it :D.