Describing current vote, rich backer lost! (8)
I believe the answer is:
electric
'lost' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'describing current vote rich backer' is the wordplay.
'describing' indicates putting letters inside (describe can mean to form the outline of).
'current' becomes 'I' (symbol for electric current).
'vote' becomes 'elect'.
'rich backer' becomes 'rc' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'elect'+'rc'='electrc'
'i' placed within 'electrc' is 'ELECTRIC'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for electric that I've seen before include "stirring" , "Charged with sudden thrill" , "Thrillingly exciting" , "Highly charged" , "Energetic" .)