Midterm elections, normally predictable and routine affairs, provided a bombshell or two this year, nowhere more explosively than in the matter of "ethnic voting." Voters identified as belonging to one or more nonwhite groups came out in unprecedented numbers, and this is, by all signs, not a blip but the first sign of a long-term change. Emil Guillermo is the host and executive producer of "NCM: New California Media" seen on PBS stations.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Four years ago, I was gingriched.

At the time, I was a talk show host at KSFO radio, one of a group brought in to make this the new, hip "youthful" power in Bay Area radio.

We lasted all of 17 weeks. Then we ran into the 1994 mid-term elections, the Republican landslide that gave them control of the House and Senate. Within a month, KSFO fired us all. "You're too liberal," they said, "And we're going conservative."

They were interpreting a political trend as a commercial trend. The edgy, ultra-conservative Rush Limbaugh was already enormously popular, and the election results had stations throughout the country cloning Rush. Conservative, hot talk -- or more accurately hate radio -- was the new meal ticket.

But times have changed.

The radio stations may not be smart enough to realize it, but "hate politics" is dead. Welcome to what pollster Mark DiCamillo calls "the start of the years of the ethnic voter."

The 1998 midterm elections prove that Gingrich and the Republicans need a new play book. Politicians who don't see trends will not be politicians for long, and this one is right under their noses.

California is currently 51% white, but with expected growth in Latino and Asian communities and African Americans keeping a steady 9 percent share of the population, minorities will be the majority in 20 years, sooner in large cities. In this year's election, 26% of the votes cast came from members of ethnic minorities -- the greatest number of such votes ever cast, according to DiCamillo.

So how does a politician build a 20 percentage point win in such a situation? Gray Davis did it by moving to the center and refusing to demonize ethnic communities.

Exit polls show Davis pulling 78 percent of the Latino vote, 84 percent of African Americans and 69 percent of Asian Americans.

The Senate race carries much the same lesson. According to DiCamillo of the Field Institute in San Francisco, Barbara Boxer would not have won without the ethnic vote -- more than 71 percent of Latinos, 85 percent of African Americans, and 51 percent of Asian voters cast votes for Boxer.

Boxer's opponent Matt Fong thought the Asians were his and ignored Latinos, although his party spent over a million dollars trying to woo Latino voters in the Spanish language media.

Make no mistake, this is not an "only in California" phenomenon. Nor is it an automatic vote for Democrats -- the electorate may be changing, but ethnic voters, like any voters, will go for the candidates that deliver on their issues.

For the time being, at least, ethnic voters are certainly volatile. Nationwide exit poll numbers on House races show that compared to the 1996 election, the GOP gained 11 percentage points among Hispanic voters, lost some 8 percent with blacks and lost 13 percent among Asians. No other demographic group showed such dramatic swings.

Republicans better start taking the old "Big Tent" idea seriously. The Bushes do, and they won in Texas and Florida. George Bush's sons seem intent on avoiding past Republican sins. After years of being Limbaughed and Gingriched, voters like a more moderate style.

They're also more ethnic than ever, and they're just beginning to recognize their collective power. Now the fight is for a center big enough to hold all of us.

So forget the wedges and the hate rhetoric. Talk radio may not get it at first, but the politicians will. The trend is toward inclusion. Demographics dictate it. By flexing their muscles November 3, ethnic voters have signaled a real revolution in American politics.