As the ballot returns start to come in, melancholy settles over the GOP faithful gathered at the U.S. Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego. Not despair—it’s hard to despair as you sip $13 beers with friends and comrades under ballroom chandeliers—but the kind of game “well, we fought hard” attitude career operatives adopt when races go awry, as they mostly are this year for Republicans in the area. On stage, a parade of losers: Gubernatorial candidate John Cox is here to concede to Democrat Gavin Newsom, as is Diane Harkey, who has failed to stave off a Democratic challenge to the seat currently held by retiring Republican Darrell Issa. After tonight, only one local GOP congressman will be left standing: Duncan Hunter, who has for a decade represented the inland 50th District, long the most solidly Republican in the state. And he’s not here.