Here are a few "winners" and "losers" from last night's special election in Virginia's 41st House of Delegates district.Winners
1. Eileen Filler-Corn and her campaign, which did an excellent job and won the election by 37 votes. Other than herself, Eileen's campaign team included her husband Bob Corn, her campaign manager Danny Friedman, Democratic activist/organizer Trent Armitage, and many others. Nice work, everyone!
2. The Washington Post, which endorsed Eileen Filler-Corn.
3. Mark Warner, who used to be Eileen's boss and who worked hard to elect her yesterday. Among many other things, Warner attended a fundraiser at Terry McAuliffe's house just a few days before the election, then helped kick off GOTV for Eileen over the weekend.
4. Jim Webb, who also worked hard to elect Eileen, including help with GOTV this past weekend.
5. Terry McAuliffe, who held a large, successful fundraiser for Eileen at his home last Thursday.
6. The Young Dem's from Arlington, Fairfax, etc. who knocked on thousands of doors and made thousands of phone calls for Eileen.
7. The Virginia and national Democratic Party, both of which got a nice boost from Eileen's win last night.
8. Gerry Connolly, up for reelection this year, has got to be happy with the victories by two Democrats in Fairfax the past few weeks. Connolly also worked hard in support of Eileen.
9. Dave Marsden, who even NLS credited with helping Eileen win the Signal Hill precinct - and the election.
10. Last but not least, Virginia Democratic bloggers, who had an extremely difficult 2009, but who were on board strongly for Eileen and are now savoring the sweet victory.
Losers
1. Kerry Bolognese, who ran a negative campaign and deservedly lost, despite Republican confidence that he would win.
2. The Republican Party of Virginia, which has now lost two special elections in a row, both in Virginia's largest county. Not good.
3. Virginia Republican bloggers, who also have now lost two special elections in a row.
4. Bob McDonnell, who campaigned for Bolognese a few days before the special election - to no avail.
5. Pat Herrity, running for Congress against Gerry Connolly, who definitely can't be happy to see Democratic victories in an important part of the 11th CD.
6. Tom Davis and Frank Wolf, both of whom endorsed Kerry Bolognese - and lost.
7. Rob Wittman, whose press secretary (Tom Crosson) tweeted early Election Day afternoon, "1st time I haven't voted... simply couldn't pull the lever for Bolognese who ran an abysmal campaign." Other than being wildly irresponsible, who knows how many votes (other than Crosson's) this cost Bolognese in a razor-thin election where every single vote counted. Brilliant!
