The winners won by not running.
Beau Biden: He has been working hard for the Democrats and his choice to stay in the AG role and the Bradley prosecution was a win/win.
While average Delawareans don’t track on the “Delaware Way” stuff as closely as we political junkies do, his jump to the Senate race would have been too glaring for people to ignore especially with the Bradley stuff going down. There was a big build up around the “what’s Beau going to do?” question and the way he resolved that questions locked in a lot of positive brand equity. People look at him as a guy with a lot of promise, but didn’t want things to come to him too easily. (Geezer to commence Biden attack in 5, 4, 3,…)
Dave Burris: Having the shit kicked out of the Republican Party might play well for him in the long run. When the teabagz crash and burn there will be nowhere to for the DEGOP to go but up. Dave has used his time as an Independent to his advantage building up a nice little online media business in Sussex. He seems to have the foundation in place to potential grown into a statewide force in the post-newspaper future. I suppose it will depend on whether Dave can put profits ahead of his (slightly less wingnutty than O’Donnell) politics. I suspect he can. Either way, he needs to drop O’Donnell a thank you note.
Pre Election losers to follow.