It is typical to recognize winners and losers after an election. I suggest there are many folks who were not on the ballot on Tuesday that had some significant benefit to their status, reputations, or future opportunities from the election results.

1. Michael Steele, GOP National Chairman-The GOP flipped the governorships of VA and NJ, and he was at the wheel of the bus.

2. Pat Mullins, RPV chair-Brought order and competency back to the RPV after the disaster of the Frederick year, with marvelous results.

3. FCRC Chairman Anthony Bedell. His organizational work laid the foundation for a McDonnell win in Fairfax County.

4. Sam Nixon, Chairman House Republican Caucus. Sam was the leader of the GOP HOD campaign effort, which had a gain of six (6) GOP seats (pending the recount in Va 21). He has done a great job, especially for a pick that was derided so much by the Dems.

5. Congressman Frank Wolf-The notion that Va-10 is trending blue has caused the Dems to com after Congressman Wolf with much fanfare (if not success) in the last three congressional cycles. But of the eight Democratic seats that flipped three (Comstock, LeMunyon, Greason) were in Va-10. Yep, almost 40% of the seats that changed from Democrat to GOP came in Va-10. Whether by plan or by accident, it seems that Va-10 is not as blue as some have suggested.  I have a hunch the Wolf hand was not unseen in helping these folks toward victory.

6. Chap Petersen/Gerry Connally-With the GOP sweep and a disconcertingly weak Democratic bench, there is no obvious out of the gates candidates for the Dems to look to for 2013. Given the belief that the Demo’s may need a NoVa presence on the ticket to rally the troops up this way, I think Chap! and my current Congressman may start to rise in the mix as potential 2013 candidates…assuming successful reelection(s) for the next four years…but first they may have to get by…

7. Terry McAuliffe-Got spanked in the primary, but did not sulk in his tent afterwards. His hard work-and ready bucks-have some already talking about him as the 2013 dem nominee

8. GOP bloggers-GOP blogs like BearingDrift and TooConservative led the way in getting the GOP to embrace all forms of social media from Facebook to Youtube, and to use it well.  Lowell feld dinged the competition by saying the GOP bloggers didn’t “drive the narrative” of the campaign.  However, having the direct phone line of the WaPo reporters can make that difficult.  Speaking of Lowell…

9. Lowell Feld-I doubt Lowell would consider himself an election day winner, but bear with me.  The unique posture of policy and politics that Lowell kept up on RK was clearly missed this time around.  But Lowell did not drift away, but used his new Blue Virginia blog to keep pushing support Democratic candidates even during the worst of times-bust was still cleare eyed and driven to  draft a compelling if scathing analysis of the Dems 2009 up and down the ticket.  I suspect his After Action Review will become the progressive call to arms for future Virginia elections.

10. Haley Barbour/ Gov of Mississippi and RGA Chairman- This choice slipped under my radar, but both Chris Cizilla and Norm Leahy got me thinking.  His work with the RGA solidified him as the premier strategist in the country and bodes well for GOP planning for 2010.

11. Twitter-Of all the social media, Twitter really seemd to be the tool of choice for fast communication, especially on election night.

Now my list is a bit out of the ordinary, but the same has been said of me on occasion.  Enjoy!

OH-And use the comments section to tell me who/what I missed!