Crowley's anti-Iraq war message

Here's a campaign mail piece that had to be pretty carefully targeted, we're guessing:

Democratic incumbent David Crowley sent one out last week that deals not with crime, or neighborhood, or even the Banks project, but the war in Iraq.

The cover features a close-up shot of Crowley supporter Jody Grundy of Clifton, the mother of Major David Grundy, an emergency medicine physician who, as a U.S. Army reservist, is about to do his third deployment in Iraq.

"Our whole family believes strongly in service, including military service when necessary,'' Jody Grundy says in the mailer. "We are grateful for the service of our troops and we support them. But endless war and repeated deployments do not support our troops."

Crowley, she says, is the "one local official (who) has had the courage to speak out strongly against the war from the very start."

Crowley, a U.S. Navy veteran, caused a stir in city hall when he introduced a resolution to put council on record as being opposed to the troop surge in Iraq. It passed on a 5-4 vote.

"I served my country in the Navy and I support military men and women like David Grundy,'' Crowley says in the mail piece. "But I also recognize that war comes at a great price to local communities. In addition to the tragedy of losing young men and women, wars redirect federal resources away from local priorities. Social services, infrastructure investment and local law enforcement all suffer."