Oh, yeah, there was a special election in MO-08 tonight.

As expected, Republican Jason Smith crushed Democrat Steve Hodges in this R+13 district.  For those scoring at home, this is the third special election held this election cycle, and – like the other two – has resulted in the incumbent party keeping the seat.  I note this largely because, prior to 2010, you couldn’t have a special election without some earnest Democrat type telling you brassily that his party had a magic formula for always winning those particular contests.  I wonder what happened to those people? …No, wait, that’s a lie: I really, really don’t.

Congratulations to Rep.-elect Smith.

Reminder in MO-06: there is no such thing as a conservative Democrat.

It’s a special election, and one that’s highly unlikely to be an upset (it’s a reliably Republican district in an election cycle where the Democrats are the ones scrambling for footholds), but remember this: I don’t care how ‘conservative’ Democratic nominee Steve Hodges claims to be.  He will caucus with the Democrats if elected, and he will vote for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker of the House if that’s what it takes to get her in, and he will betray whatever conservative principles that he might have if it’s a close vote.  This is the way of things; there is no real sense in pretending otherwise.  And we have plenty of evidence to justify my cynicism.

Jason Smith is the Republican candidate in this election. Calibrate accordingly.