Mainly, it showed that the Latino romance with Republicans is over.
According to the William C. Velasquez Institute's exit polling, nearly seven out of 10 Hispanic voters nationwide favored Democratic candidates, with Republicans appealing to only 27 percent. There was an 11 percent GOP drop from the midterm election in 2002.
The realignment is a shattering setback for President Bush and his adviser, Karl Rove. They have been counting on escorting more Latinos into the Republican ranks to form a new party base as significant as their Southern strategy.
Hispanic voters, by 78 percent, favor some form of legal status for undocumented immigrants, contrasted to 57 percent of all others, an exit poll carried by The Wall Street Journal reported. Additionally, 37 percent of the polled Latinos called the issue of illegal immigration "extremely important" to them. That compared to 29 percent for all demographic groups.
Naysayers were gleeful before the election that Latino voter-registration drives provoked by the spring immigration-reform demonstrations appeared to have fallen on their face. Many experts predicted that Hispanic voters would fail to turn out in large numbers. Besides, they observed, most of the critical races were in states with relatively low Hispanic populations.
Instead, the Latino turnout was about 8 percent of the total, roughly equal to its 2004 record. Since 1974, Latino voting has averaged a nearly half-million increase each midterm election.
Unquestionably, immigration reform did the Republicans in. White voters divided almost right down the middle between Democrats and Republicans on key candidates. The Latino bloc became the fulcrum tilting the contest.
"Hispanics said 'adios' to President Bush's Republican Party" is how Miami Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer put it.
If Republicans expect growth in absolute numbers, they must moderate, maybe by going back to their Main Street political tradition _ standing for small business, small government, low taxes and balanced budgets. The election terminated _ at least for the time being _ the careers of most supply-siders, neo-cons and voodoo economists.
But let's get straight what really did them in: Immigration. Demagogues within the party thought the public couldn't see through their immigration mask. Poor people needing work were portrayed as terrorists. Mexico, this country's second-largest trade partner, was billed as Sodom. Claims about immigrant costs were shouted, but its benefits weren't even whispered.
The public was asked to tolerate a low-intensity pogrom waged at home against Hispanics. It may have been the hateful tradition's last gasp.
So what's in store in the new era? The focus now will shift to 75 congressional districts with Hispanic populations of 100,000 to 300,000. The U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute expects the vast majority of those districts to be represented by Hispanics in the next 20 years. The current 5,000 elected Latino officials at all levels of government could become 50,000 in that time period.
In his statement summing up Nov. 7, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean singled out the re-election of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Latino who coasted to victory, and, in New Jersey, Sen. Bob Menendez's election to a full term.
He also mentioned Colombian-American Patricia Torres Ray, who won a state Senate seat in Wisconsin, and Cuba native Luis Garcia, who joined the Florida legislature.
