Here are a couple of City Council candidate Wellington Sharpe's mailers, which someone familiar with the campaign told me are going out to about 10,000 households.

Beating up on the Brooklyn Democratic Party was certainly effective when the organization was led by the scandal-plagued Clarence Norman. Exactly how much traction that message gets in the Vito Lopez era is unclear, although it never seems to hurt anyone's appeal to voters when they rail against the machine.

Meanwhile, criticizing Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and the botched bus program, as things currently stand, is a no-brainer.

UPDATE: Citizens Union just announced a "joint endorsement" of two candidates in Brooklyn's special election: Zenobia McNally and Wellington Sharpe.

-- Azi Paybarah