Kaufman returned to Wilmington after graduation to take a job with DuPont. He also became involved in local politics, eventually accepting a position to chair the Democratic party in Biden's GOP-leaning council district. He first met Biden in 1971 at a meeting of local neighborhood associations.

Biden asked Kaufman to help with his 1972 Senate campaign against longtime Republican incumbent Caleb Boggs soon after. At the time, Kaufman told Biden, "I've got to be honest with you. I really don't think you have much of chance to win this race."

But Kaufman was impressed with Biden's nerve and his grassroots organizing. He became the campaign's state party liaison and the architect of the upstart challenger's voter turnout program. Biden defeated Boggs with 51 percent of the vote and turned 30 once he took office.

Kaufman said he remembers the campaign and victory party as if it were yesterday. "I will never again believe something's impossible," he told NPR.

When Biden's wife was killed in a car accident just weeks after his Senate election, Kaufman agreed to take a one-year leave of absence from his DuPont job in order to run Biden's Washington, D.C., Senate office. He and Biden would often commute to Washington together by automobile, so that Biden could call his sons on his newly purchased car phone.

Kaufman quickly developed tight relationships with Washington lawmakers and staffers. "He is smart, level-headed and a master strategist," said Paul Brathwaite, who was Kaufman's student at Duke and later executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus. "Ted understands policy and knows how to put the pieces together to get things done."

Though he initially planned on working in Washington only temporarily, Kaufman decided to accept a permanent position in Biden's office. He was named chief of staff in 1976.

Kaufman was one of Biden's senior advisers during the Senator's 1988 presidential run. Though Biden was an early favorite, his campaign became embroiled in a plagiarism scandal and Biden dropped out. The Senator was worried his political career was over, but Kaufman reassured him. "I genuinely believed that he could come back from this," he told The Washington Post.

When Biden suffered two brain aneurysms 18 months later, Kaufman was at his side. He ran Biden's Senate affairs while he recovered for six months.

Kaufman began lecturing at Duke Law School in 1991. He left his chief of staff position in 1994. In 1995, he was named to the charter board of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, an organization that oversees U.S. civilian international broadcasting, including Voice of America and Alhurra Television. He also ran Public Strategies, his one-person management consulting firm in Wilmington, Del. Kaufman said he rejected offers from lobbying firms so that he could help Biden if he ever chose to run for president again. He had the chance in 2006, when Biden decided to run for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination in a crowded field full of prominent Democrats.

Low poll numbers forced Biden out of the race soon after the Iowa caucuses. However, when Barack Obama selected Biden as his running mate, Kaufman joined the campaign as a senior adviser. He is co-head of Biden's transition team effort, along with Mark Gitenstein.

In the days after the election, there was much speculation in Delaware Democrats' inner circle about who would be appointed to replace Biden. Lt. Gov. John Carney (D) said he would take the job under "any terms offered."

But Minner settled on Kaufman instead, calling to offer him the job an hour before he left for his Thanksgiving trip to London. She explained that Biden and Kaufman shared political views. "He has agreed to focus solely on doing the people's work, not seeking re-election," she wrote in a statement.

Kaufman will hold the position until 2010, when the state will have a special election. Kaufman has already said he will not seek re-election to the Senate.

Minner's decision did not sit well with many Delaware Democrats, who see the move as a way to keep the seat open for Beau Biden, who deployed to Iraq as a trial counsel with the Delaware National Guard in November 2008. Beau said he would not shirk his military obligations for a Senate appointment, but many think he will run for the position in 2010.

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