At a campaign event this week in Berkeley, gubernatorial candidate and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan bristled at the mention of an opinion piece that grouped her with filmmaker Michael Moore. “Saw your name in the New York Times today,” an enthusiastic supporter told her.

“They can kiss my ass,” Sheehan said. “I’m nothing like Michael Moore.”

Sheehan believes that Moore’s previous support of President Barack Obama has compromised his liberalism. Sheehan, on the other hand, dropped the Democratic Party years ago and hasn’t looked back. Now she is running for governor with the Peace and Freedom Party, a socialist party whose California gubernatorial candidates have consistently garnered about one percent of the vote. Sheehan, a former Berkeley resident who now lives in Vacaville, California, admits that her victory might be a long shot. But it’s only one of several formidable battles that she has tried — is trying — to fight.

Sheehan became the face of an anti-war movement in 2005, when she set up camp outside a Crawford, Texas, ranch and refused to leave until George W. Bush — who was on vacation there — agreed to meet with her. Sheehan dubbed the site of her protest Camp Casey, after her son, Casey Sheehan, who was killed at age 24 while serving in the U.S. Army in Baghdad, Iraq, the year before. Sheehan blamed Bush for her son’s death and wanted an explanation.