Too many false assumptions to deal with here. California sits on the West coast of the largest economy in the world. It therefore benefits from all the trade produced in the rest of the country that passes through to the Pacific Rim. Throw in abundant natural resources and it would be hard not to have a healthy economy.
Also, California was red before it was blue. It turned blue when all of that success attracted the inevitable takers; also known as democrat constituents. Liberals are well known for leaving a part of the country that they mess up with their ideology and then messing up the new place with those same policies. Colorado and Nevada, for example. They are currently hell bent on doing that in Texas and Arizona, using illegal immigration as one of their main tools, of course.  
 To say that any success California might have had is due to their tax high taxes, welfare,and illegal immigration is laughable.