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Well, obviously the American people won. After all, we had another (partial) transfer of political power that was not accompanied by automatic weapons fire! Seriously, that's an accomplishment that many, many other countries sickly envy: fortunately, we're just that awesome. But aside from that, certain other groups benefited - and some of them lost.
Winners
The National Republican Congressional Committee. Hard to argue with at least a +61 GOP result, although of course there's always the desire for more. The NRCC also managed to avoid most of the criticism tossed the way of the NRSC (National Republican Senatorial Committee—which is, of course, the equivalent of the NRCC for the upper chamber) and the RNC this election cycle, although there was some (and there looks to be some more in the upcoming recount battles). The NRCC had good recruitment; almost as importantly, deep recruitment. The GOP ran 430 candidates out of 435 in House races this cycle. That makes a difference.
The Republican Governors’ Association. The RGA wanted to win a lot of critical governorships this year--and they did--but they also wanted to be recognized as serious players. And they did that, too; their GOTV program had beneficial effects in a lot of states, including Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania--all of which are states that are going to be important in 2012.
Losers
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Never mind the sixty-plus seats lost on the Democratic side, at least for the purposes of this discussion; it takes a special kind of incompetence to under-perform a target number of four pickups. Fortunately, DCCC chair Van Hollen was up to the challenge. Their agitprop aside, the Democrats were at least certain that they would pick up Kirk's seat in Illinois. They failed. This wouldn't be much of an issue . . . except, again, that their true target number was four.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Yes, before we go any further: they kept California, Colorado, Delaware, Nevada, Washington, and West Virginia. I'm sure that this will be a great comfort to the Democrats when they consider that they lost Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, and Wisconsin-- and that they were ultimately unable to take advantage of primary upsets in Alaska, Florida, Kentucky, and Utah. Or that they threw money down a hole in Ohio and Missouri. Put another way: +6 GOP is only small in comparison to +10 GOP.
A Wash
The RNC. The national group was overshadowed by the Congressional and gubernatorial committees this year; but the group is probably going to benefit from being 'lucky' instead of 'good.' The fact is that the Republicans took back the House, cut down the Democratic Senate majority to 53, took key governorships, and will control at least 54 of 99 state legislative bodies next year. That much of this is due to the other national committees is likely to be more or less overlooked.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee. On the one hand, the NRSC took six seats away from the Democrats, including three that the Democrats really did not want to give up (Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin). On the other hand, they failed to knock off unpopular incumbents in California and Nevada, and they did not capitalize on open seat opportunities in Connecticut and West Virginia. On the gripping hand, there is currently a somewhat 'vigorous debate' going on between the NRSC and the activist base over... just about everything with regard to the process, really. How it plays out is anybody's guess.
You'll note that I didn't put the Democratic party in general, the Republican party in general, and/or the White House in any of those lists. That's because we don't know yet if the first will learn the right lessons from defeat, the second will learn the right lessons from victory, or that the third will ever deign to learn any lessons at all.
