The War at Home

The coming weeks are crucial. In order to secure a spot on the ballot in November, Sheehan must collect 3,000 signatures from registered voters in the district, beginning April 25, and submit them to the county elections office by July 24 or pay a $1,652 filing fee. By Aug. 8, Sheehan must submit 10,198 nomination signatures--3 percent of the number of registered voters in the Eighth District prior to the 2006 general elections. Her aides hope the compact nature of the terrain will help them reach that goal. "The advantage of being in the second-smallest district in the U.S. is that we will be able to literally walk every street and shake hands with each of the 600,000 constituents," said Sheehan's campaign manager, Tiffany Burns. But even if the door-knocking and hand-shaking convinces voters to cast their ballots against Pelosi, Sheehan will also need to persuade them that she is the best alternative to Republican candidate Dana Walsh, Libertarian Philip Berg and Democrat Shirley Golub, who is challenging Pelosi in the June primary.

Sheehan knows that her fortunes will turn largely on the way folks in the Eighth District feel about the war, a conflict whose artifacts--Casey's military portrait, a picture of the Purple Heart he was awarded at his funeral, a congressional commendation from New YorkRep. Charles Rangel--decorates Sheehan's otherwise cheerfully painted yellow office. "If there's any good to come out of Casey's death, I hope it is to make this country the country he supposedly died for," she said. Despite her busy schedule, Sheehan is still grieving her dead son. She cries in her office and again at dinner. She laments the fact that her grandson will never meet his Uncle Casey. Despite the activists who took to the streets Wednesday to protest the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, polling from the presidential primaries has shown that the economy has become the leading issue in voters' minds. Sheehan says this only helps her campaign: "Our tanking economy is directly connected to the war economy," she says. "An economic-stimulus plan that no one's talking about is bringing our troops home and putting that money into America."

Sheehan declines to discuss what she'll do if this campaign falls short. "I haven't even looked that far," Sheehan says. "I don't put that negative energy into the universe because I'm pretty sure I'm already going to win. I'm already decorating my office in Washington, D.C., in my head."

Correction (published March 28, 2008): This story originally erred in stating that Pelosi declined to comment. In fact, Pelosi's spokesman did provide a comment to NEWSWEEK prior to publication, which is now included in the updated text. NEWSWEEK regrets the error.

© 2008