One of the more interesting political careers in recent decades probably ended this week, but electoral defeat shouldn’t preclude many years more of public policy work for former Congressman Artur Davis of Alabama.

Davis was trounced Aug. 27 in a 12-way race for mayor of Montgomery, finishing sixth, with just 4% of the vote. Four years earlier, Davis came in second to a popular incumbent in a five-way race for the same office. Caught betwixt and between, as a centrist and a man without a party in a political atmosphere that rewards ideological party stalwarts, Davis seems to have little elective future.