I just happened today to pick up a copy of Asian Fortune, the newspaper serving over 500,000 Asian Americans in the metropolitan Washington area.

The paper should sound alarm bells for Republicans running for office — and give comfort to Hillary Clinton’s presidential prospects.

Some excerpts from stories in the December 2006 issue:

The community gained further political clout as kingmakers and swing voters. Forging coalitions with Asian American advocacy groups, they worked tirelessly in many campaigns and mobilized a high voter turn-out on Election Day – not just for Asian American candidates, but also for others who supported their education, health care, civil rights, immigration and veterans’ concerns, as well as local issues. Most of these candidates won. Majority of the winning Asian American candidates are Democrats.

and

Vietnamese American voters in Virginia helped tilt the balance of political power in the midterm election … Vietnamese Americans in Northern Virginia and elsewhere in the Old Commonwealth … flocked to the polls in greater numbers to help elect Democratic candidate James Webb in a tight-wire senatorial contest with incumbent Republican U.S. Senator George Allen.

That was the 2006 elections.  The warning signs for the future for the GOP?

Consider this front-page treatment the paper gives Sen. Clinton under the headline “Hillary Clinton Hails Ethnic Media”:

Senator Hillary Clinton (Democrat-NY) hailed Asian, Latino and other minority media in the nation, stressing “the impact you are making” at the New America Media (NAM) 1st National Ethnic Media Awards held on Nov. 14 in the nation’s capital. … Hillary, the Democratic frontrunner in the 2008 presidential elections, electrified the reception with her five-minute appearance. Guests greeted her like a rock star, applauding, fist-pumping and making “woo-woo” sounds.

Rock star, indeed.  Here’s Asian Fortune’s page one photo:

Asian-American voters may have been the sleeper swing voters of 2006.  But there should be no surprise the role they’ll play in 2008.  Their political value is worth, as they themselves might put it, a fortune.