Unapologetic Townsend Moving On

By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 8, 2002; Page B01

She wore baggy black pants and a tattered wool sweater. Hiking boots. No makeup. The only vestige of the well-tailored outfits she wore on the campaign trail were the matte gold
earrings still affixed to each lobe.

How does it feel to be the first Democrat to lose the Maryland governor's mansion in 36 years? a TV reporter asked.

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend smiled.

"Oh. Well," she said, "I feel pretty bad."

Townsend said she was blindsided by her loss to Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. She never saw it coming. Not until election night, when it hit, all at once, with the reporting of suburban
Baltimore precincts around 10:30 p.m.

She delivered a concession speech, stayed up late commiserating with friends and took a day off to rest and recover. And yesterday, she chose a wooded hiking trail outside Annapolis
as the setting for her final meeting with reporters about the campaign.

"The image is you walk on with your life," Townsend said when asked about the location. "Besides, walking is one of my favorite things to do."

And so she walked -- at quite a brisk clip -- with husband David, daughters Maeve and Kate, and a small group of reporters down the Baltimore and Annapolis Trail, where the sun shone
and the autumn leaves glowed.

Townsend abandoned the scripted performances of her candidacy to talk candidly about her loss, Ehrlich's future and the pitfalls of a contest she had been expected to win easily as the
daughter of Robert F. Kennedy running in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 2 to 1.

What happened?

"Things changed," Townsend said.

When she announced her candidacy in May, Townsend said she was running on the message that the past eight years had been good, but that things could be even better. She had
solid support from liberals and hope of picking up a large bloc of moderates with the selection of her running mate, retired Adm. Charles R. Larson, a lifelong Republican with a storied
Navy career who switched parties to join her ticket.

But then she spent the month of August "on the defensive" answering media inquiries about a federal grand jury investigation of a state anti-crime office under her control. The
investigation, spearheaded by a Republican U.S. attorney with ties to Ehrlich, distracted her campaign. Townsend contends that the investigation, which continues, was politically
motivated. "There's nothing there," she said.

Then the news emerged in September that the state's projected budget shortfall had climbed to $1.7 billion over two years. Gov. Parris N. Glendening's approval rates, never high, fell
through the floor.

"What happened in the state is people wanted change, and it was hard to get my message of change out," Townsend said. "We did well with our base, but there was a huge outpouring
of people who wanted change from Glendening."

Asked why Glendening is so unpopular, Townsend smiled.

"The budget really hurt," she said.

Any other reason?

She smiled again and shook her head.

"You know what?" she said. "I'm going to go out as a class act. That's who I am."

Other Democrats have said Glendening bears much of the blame for Townsend's loss. He did little to staunch the flow of red ink, and he turned off some voters by divorcing his wife last
year and marrying his much younger deputy chief of staff.

This week, Glendening said his approval ratings had no effect on Democratic candidates in Maryland. He cited Democratic victories in two races for the U.S. House. Instead, he blamed
Townsend, saying she had "the worst-run campaign in the country." Yesterday, Townsend defended her team.

"I ran a good campaign," she said. "I tried to get the issues out. Clearly, I had the challenge of the budget deficit hanging over my head. But we achieved what we set out to do."

Townsend admitted to one error: Keeping the choice of Larson a secret. When she introduced him at a rally in Annapolis, Democrats praised the choice as "brilliant," she said, "a stroke
of genius." But many were privately annoyed that they had not been consulted. That came back to haunt Townsend when black leaders in Prince George's County complained publicly
that they had been ignored.

Though she seemed to be relaxed and at peace -- even cheerful -- Townsend made clear that losing has hit her quite hard. On top of the personal setback, she fears that Ehrlich will
dismantle much of the progress she and Glendening have made over the past eight years, particularly in her core areas of crime prevention and economic development.

"I would have been a great governor. I think it's very unfortunate," Townsend said. "I really did have a vision for the state and the information-based economy, which I don't think
[Ehrlich] understands at all. I really believe very deeply it was a loss for the state."

She said she has no idea where Ehrlich will lead Maryland, other than his stated plans to legalize slot machines and build an intercounty connector that would link Interstates 270 and 95.

"He seems to be truly committed to slots and the ICC. That's where I heard the most passion. Other than that, I didn't hear a lot of passion," Townsend said.

As for her, she plans to take a vacation and then take stock. She is lieutenant governor until January. After that, she said, who knows?

She would not rule out the possibility of challenging Ehrlich in 2006. But for the immediate future, Townsend said, she has made no plans.

"I truly intended to win this campaign," she said.

                                                 © 2002 The Washington Post Company