Capitol Confidential makes note of a controversy brewing between The Working Families Party and the old socialists and 9/11 tinfoil-hatters of the green party.

At issue is the mailer above, on the reverse of which is the entire WFP slate; however, the green Senate candidate claims to have been endorsed by Cindy Sheehan and is accusing the WFP of deliberate deception right before the election. Gatemouth agrees.

Here's the problem with that assessment: all of the people pictured on the mailer provided statements and express permission for these to be used. To quote the WFP's Alex Navarro:

“Cindy Sheehan is a courageous American, who along with Michael Moore and Pete Seeger, has been an important force in changing public opinion about the war in Iraq,” Navarro said. “The Working Families Party is grateful for the support they’ve given to the party’s ‘Bring ‘em Home’ campaign and for the quotations they authorized for our direct mail.”

“We hope New Yorkers who reject the Nader-ite spoiler approach to electoral politics that elected George W. Bush president will vote Working Families on Tuesday to send a message about the war.”

So basically, what you have here is a case of crossed wires and competing endorsements, one personal, the other party-based. As far as I can tell, WFP did its due diligence; getting statements from people usually implies they'll be published to some advantage, a fact not unknown to the people in the habit of making such statements. Maybe Sheehan, God bless her, should have checked for potential conflicts before she even talked to that green.

None of this explains, by the way, how a vote for or against a statewide candidate - Cuomo, anyone? - is going to bring home the troops. Last I checked, that's a decision for the executive branch at the Federal level; not that such arcane obscura as the structure of government should impede any of this electioneering business. What this mailer does, however, is interesting; we'll find out how strongly anti-war sentiment, as expressed via the WFP vote, influences state-level races. The WFP has positioned itself as the clear vehicle for the anti-war vote; snall wonder the greens are foaming at the mouth and screaming bloody murder about this. Here's a hint: next time, just do your homework on your endorsements.