Nancy Pelosi faces an unwelcome challenge from the left, as Cindy Sheehan qualifies for the November ballot for the California 8th District House seat held by the Speaker. John Wildemuth of the San Francisco Chronicle reports:
The collection of signatures by Sheehan's campaign was more exciting than usual. On Wednesday, the campaign was well short of the 10,198 signatures needed to get on the ballot after San Francisco elections officials found that more than 40 percent of the people who signed weren't registered in the city's Eighth Congressional District.
Sheehan's supporters redoubled their efforts to collect enough signatures to beat the 5 p.m. Friday deadline, ultimately turning in more than 17,000 signatures to ensure that she qualified.
"It was a little disconcerting to see all the problems with the signatures," Sheehan said from her Mission Street headquarters, where more than 100 supporters gathered to celebrate. "The last couple of days, I've been checking the registrations myself on the computer."
With her ballot spot guaranteed, Sheehan can focus on the fall campaign, where she will challenge Pelosi from the left, slamming the speaker for refusing to start impeachment proceedings against President Bush and not taking a stronger stance against the war in Iraq.
Pelosi faces a Republican and a Libertarian as well as Sheehan, and nobody thinks for a second that her seat is in jeopardy.
Republicans should be running against the Pelosi Congress going on vacation while solutions to our energy woes were left hanging. The further left San Fran Nan is seen by the rest of the country, the better. And now, thanks to the possibility of a protest vote going to Sheehan, Pelos is less likely to moderate her "San Francisco values" in the interest of lowering publica anger at Congress.
Hat tip: Jack Kemp (not the politician)
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