05:10 PM PDT on Sunday, May 7, 2006

By ERIC WILKINSON / KING 5 News

SEATTLE – Sen. Maria Cantwell is facing increasing pressure from anti-war activists to admit she was wrong to vote for the authorization of force in Iraq.

She is also reportedly having problems finding volunteers to work for her campaign, and two anti-war candidates are now challenging her in the Democratic primary.

And on Saturday, she sat down with a group of anti-war families asking her to push for a quick withdrawal of U.S. Forces.

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Among them was Joe Colgan, whose 30-year-old son Ben was killed by a roadside bomb near Baghdad 3 years ago.

Last week Colgan staged a sit-in at the senator's Seattle office.

On Saturday, Colgan and several others held a two-hour private meeting with the senator, but he emerged deeply disappointed in Cantwell and Democrats in general.

“Their silence is so deafening it just makes me sick,” said Colgan.

Former Cantwell campaign manager Ron Dotzauer says to admit wrongdoing now would be political suicide.

“That would do her more political damage than anything else she could do,” said Dotzauer said.

On Sunday, a Cantwell aide released a statement saying "Sen. Cantwell believes that the 30,000 troops the military said they would bring home this year was a good start but not enough."

The senator says 2006 should be a "year of transition" in Iraq but critics call that too vague.

“We asked her what do mean by ‘transition’, this ‘year of transition’ the Democrats are talking about.  What hat the hell does that mean?” said Colgan

And while most don't believe the issue will make much of a difference at the polls, Colgan says to families like his, it makes all the difference in the world.  

While Cantwell supports bringing some troops home this year she has not backed any firm deadline.

She believes the new Iraqi government must be firmly in place before a complete us withdrawal.

There are some 9,100 troops from Washington state in Iraq right now.