Election Night Winners:

* The boys at Radioactivefilms who did underdog winner Cathy Quist's TV commercials are two for two, politically speaking, after having done Danny Mayfield's television last fall. They are Roger Bourdeau and Rich Belz, and they were the only guys with ponytails at GOP headquarters election night. They are now officially a hot commodity, having received feelers for the August general election from both the incumbent county executive, Democrat Tommy Schumpert, and the GOP challenger, Scott Davis. Belz and Bourdeau were also observed in conversation with soon-to-be-ex-Senator Bud Gilbert, who evidently isn't through with politics.

* Martha Phillips, clerk of the Criminal Court, long a target of Bean Machine wrath. Phillips, popular in the courthouse for her courtesy and general niceness, hasn't been involved in election intrigue over the years but made an exception in the race between Quist and Lillian Bean. As Phillips, Quist and Mary Lou Horner took the stage at GOP headquarters, Horner pronounced it a "good night for redheads."

* Russ Nunley—the only TV reporter who got it right. Nunley's Channel 6 reporting on controversies surrounding Lillian Bean's use of employees for campaigning were relentless and made the other guys look like wimps.

Election Night Losers:

* Self-styled local "political insiders" who never saw the Quist train coming. Derisively called "The Ingram Group Coffee Klatch" by Quist supporters at GOP headquarters Tuesday night, these would be the crack staff of pundits on Channels 6 and 10 and the Radio Station Formerly Known As WIVK. And chief among them are Ingram Group employees George Korda and his boss, Susan Richardson Williams, who, week after week pre-election, proclaimed incumbent Lillian Bean not to be in trouble. Williams, particularly, should lose her pundit's license for allowing her pro-Bean, anti-Quist views to cloud her judgment and produce a stream of sub-astute observations like "I see no indication that the sheriff's helping Cathy Quist," and "Lillian's coming out with an endorsement ad that should have quite an impact," and "Negative advertising on cable TV will have very little impact..." But these events, after all, shouldn't be a surprise, since this is virtually the same braintrust that also wrote off Mayfield and saw unification winning by a landslide.

* Lee Miracle, city employee and Bean Machine operative who stumped for losing candidates Lillian Bean, Ralph Teague and Steve Nash. "He didn't pull off any miracles tonight," said GOPolitico Tim Witt of Miracle, who previously was involved in the PR fiasco of the attempted seizure of the McCarter farm for a ball park and the attempted circulation of anonymous pro-annexation flyers in Cedar Chase subdivision. (Mayor Victor Ashe hired Miracle away from the county because of his political skills.)

Political Assets

Bud Gilbert got a lot of awards during his 8-year stint in the state Senate. There were "Birddog" awards for ethics and environmental awards for being one of those rare "green" Republicans. There was also one informal honor that didn't make the news: the "Best Buns in the Senate" award. Gilbert was ridden mercilessly during his last few hours on the Senate floor for being the consensus winner of the best bootie honor, given by female legislators and staffers. It got so bad that he took to tying his suit jacket around his waist to hide his best feature. "I'd rather not comment about my butt," Gilbert harrumphed. "But saying I have the best derriere in the Senate isn't saying a lot."