Tente adicionar 'use_unicode'.
db = MySQLdb.connect(host=DB_HOST, user=DB_USER, passwd=DB_PASS, db=DB_NAME, charset="utf8", use_unicode=True)
db = MySQLdb.connect(host=DB_HOST, user=DB_USER, passwd=DB_PASS, db=DB_NAME, charset="utf8", use_unicode=True)
