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Campaigns & Elections has made their latest issue available for free online.

Approximately 100% of you reading this right now follow politics closely, and would make good use of a subscription. Those of you with short arms and deep pockets can still find some good stuff for free every month on the C&E website.

I’m a little bit biased here because I contribute the Missouri report for the Across State Lines section, but for what it’s worth, I’ve been a faithful reader since high school, throughout college, and beyond. You’ll find both big-picture strategy suggestions and nuts-and-bolts campaign tactics in every issue.

You’ll note that this issue’s cover story is on consultant won/loss records. That might be an interesting topic to delve further into on this blog next month, dontcha think?

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We should win the special election for Gross’ seat by a wide margin, but it brings up a bigger issue: What happened in St. Charles County on Nov. 7? Everybody is looking at St. Louis County as if the GOP vote deficit was something new (it’s not), but what the Ford Frick happened in St. Chuck?

Maybe we can stir some of the good ol’ boys to action by telling them their county map went from red to pink.

* Refers to a hilarious series of consecutive posts by Antonio French at PubDef a few months ago. In the words of Eddie Murphy, laugh now, then figure it out when you get home.

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Just because Election Day was a downer — nationwide — doesn’t mean we should make excuses.

This post-primary post sets appropriate standards for state legislative candidates that came up short on Tuesday.

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There is a select group of men and women in this state who can call themselves political consultants.

I would guess that between both parties, there are probably about two or three dozen legitimate political consultants in the state. I’m in a generous mood today, so let’s call it 50.

To a person, these people are paid to give candidates, parties, and issue groups advice on political campaigns. (A very small group could get paid for their work, but turn down the money and do it for free.)

Is it just me, or is every disgruntled, unemployed former candidate you meet these days trying to pass himself off as a “political consultant”?

A new rule: If you’ve ever run and lost by at least 50 points — and no one has ever paid you for your “help” on a campaign — you forfeit the right to publicly make-believe that you are a political consultant.

Much, much more on this in the future.

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