If this month's special election in South Carolina's 1st District had all the ingredients to cook up a national spectacle, the June 4 election to fill GOP Rep. Jo Ann Emerson's vacant seat in southeast Missouri is a recipe for obscurity.
As both parties survey what the trio of ongoing scandals in D.C. might mean for 2014, it's easy to forget that there's a House race in two weeks' time that might have been competitive under a different set of circumstances--particularly had Republicans nominated a more flawed candidate or Democrats eked out a victory in SC-01.
The extraordinary plot line of the South Carolina race--a sex scandal-tarred former governor up against the sister of comedian Stephen Colbert--proved irresistible to members of the news media eager to jet to picturesque Charleston, not to mention donors.
In the end, partisanship won out. Even though most voters told pollsters they didn't like or trust Mark Sanford personally, Elizabeth Colbert Busch failed to convince voters she was different from her party and a "safe" alternative to represent them.
To Democrats' disappointment, MO-08
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