In that case can we do the same for the Canterbury Regional Council elections? Or all of the God knows how many hundreds of electoral districts in India? Each of those elections is just as significant to the local residents as the state of California is to Californians, and just as insignificant to the rest of the world.
Given that the California recall election was covered on the front page of several European newspapers, I'd say there's some empirical evidence that "insignificant to the rest of the world" is inaccurate.
-Mark