There are a few ways that a candidate for public office can brutally lose an election. You can be caught in a sex scandal -- physical or online -- forcing you from the race under an avalanche of moral judgement. That certainly isn't a fun way to suffer defeat, as Anthony Weiner can attest.
Another terrible way to lose would be to get caught cheating, either during or after the fact. Going to jail because you broke campaign finance law is not, exactly, enjoyable or good for one's career goals. Jeff Smith has written a book about it.
Absent incarceration and humiliation, however, the most excruciating loss that you can suffer in politics is to lose by an incomprehensibly small margin. Close defeats gnaw on the losing candidate's psyche and can lead them to replay certain moments from the trail, wondering what the butterfly effect would have been if they'd just knocked on a few more doors or kissed a few more babies or called third cousins and asked for their vote.
Former Vice President Al Gore to this day doesn't really talk much about his 2000 election defeat. We know. We've tried to interview him about it.
But there are others who have suffered even closer losses than Gore.
Karl Kassel ran for state house in Alaska in 2008. Out of the about 10,000 votes cast, he came up two or four short, depending on who is doing the counting. It was one of the closest elections in American political history. And, really, there isn't much room for another election to claim that honor.
In his interview on this week's episode of our "Candidate Confessional" podcast, Kassel relived his run for office -- from the trail to the night of the first certification, when he was down by just one vote, 5,018 to 5,017 -- and the recount that took place after. In the process, he explained all the accompanying drama, emotion and, ultimately, heartache that comes with getting this close to winning, only to fall short.
"It was hard. It was hard on all of us," he said. "I felt like I let [my staff] down. That I should have done more. I should have knocked on one more door. I should have written one more letter. ... Two votes, please. You can think of a thousand ways to make up two votes. And, you know, I felt like I had really let down these people who had worked so hard."
Listen to the podcast above, or download it on iTunes. And while you’re there, please subscribe to, rate and review our show. Make sure to tune in to next week’s episode, when our guest will be Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor, on his run for the White House.
This podcast is edited by Christine Conetta