great corrections of our time
New York Times - October 24, 2006
A report in the Off the Trail column yesterday about an antiwar
commercial by the Working Families Party sent by e-mail to New York
State voters misidentified a musician who wrote a letter supporting
the party’s effort. He is the folk singer Pete Seeger — not the rock
musician Bob Seger.
New York Times - October 23, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/nyregion/23trail.html
Sending a Message on a Ballot
Jonathan Tasini never got very far with his antiwar challenge to
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primary last month.
Now the Working Families Party is picking up that banner, though in a
somewhat friendlier way.
The party sent an Internet antiwar commercial via e-mail last week to
more than 100,000 New York voters, urging them to vote for Democratic
candidates on the Working Families Party ballot line — as opposed to
the Democratic Party line — as a way of sending a message that they
opposed the war. The e-mail missive includes a letter from the rock
musician Bob Seeger supporting the party’s effort, which it calls
“Bring Them Home.”
Party leaders said they wanted to hold Mrs. Clinton accountable for
voting in 2002 to authorize military action in Iraq, as well as other
candidates whom they endorsed, like Mrs. Clinton, and who initially
supported the war. Mrs. Clinton’s name will appear on both the
Democratic Party line and the Working Families Party line on the Nov.
7 ballot.
“Our difference with Senator Clinton is a difference in degree — her
phased redeployment doesn’t go far enough, fast enough,” said Dan
Cantor, executive director of the Working Families Party. “If we
could get 300,000 or 400,000 votes on our line, it would surprise
her, and it would be a real signal to her and to Democratic
congressmen who supported the war.”
The party has a special interest in winning more votes to its ballot
line: If it can accumulate more votes than the Conservative Party,
which now occupies the fourth slot on the ballot, it can move up from
its fifth place on the ballot.
PATRICK HEALY