Townsend party goes on, future in limbo
Next move uncertain for ex-lieutenant governor
 
By David Nitkin
Sun Staff

June 28, 2003

As her political career bloomed, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's summer shindigs became the stuff of legend.

The former lieutenant governor would host an annual bash at the Baltimore Zoo - part fund-raiser, part birthday celebration for a woman born on the Fourth of July. By 2001, the event was attracting more than 7,000 people, cementing Townsend's reputation as a front-runner in the emerging governor's race and a force with whom Democrat wannabes had to reckon.

Her latest party, scheduled for today at a farm in western Howard County, will be a decidedly different affair.

Townsend won't be accepting campaign donations, or making stump speeches. She won't be scaring away Democratic challengers with the power of her family name or broad smile.

Instead, she'll thank campaign volunteers and other supporters who toiled on her behalf last year, placing a punctuation mark on the abysmal outcome to her bid to succeed former Gov. Parris N. Glendening.

"That's when the summer is," Townsend said yesterday, asked why the celebration was scheduled eight months after Election Day. "It's much nicer to have an outdoor event. That's what I've loved."

A thousand people have accepted invitations to Nixon's Farm in West Friendship, Townsend said, where they'll bite into fried chicken and hot dogs and tap their feet to a band.

It will be paid for by the Friends of Kathleen Kennedy Townsend campaign committee, which records show had a $53,000 cash balance as of January, but also owed a $160,000 loan, which the candidate reportedly made to her campaign in its closing days.

Townsend said she'll keep her remarks short: "I'll say thank you."

Unlike previous festivities, today's bash is no can't-miss event for those still embittered by last year's defeat. Karen White, the campaign manager brought in to revive Townsend's flagging bid last August, won't be attending. Neither will Len Foxwell, one of the campaign's spokesmen. Both have other plans.

The party marks one of the few public appearances for Robert F. Kennedy's eldest child since she lost to Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. last November.

Since then, she's taken trips, and become the president of a nonprofit group, Operation Respect: Don't Laugh At Me, which distributes an anti-bullying curriculum to schools.

Townsend won't say if she intends to seek office in the future and declined to elaborate on whether today's party would help maintain visibility and political viability in her adopted state. But experts hold out scant hope for resurrection.

"I can't see much political motivation behind it," said Matthew Crenson, a political science professor at the Johns Hopkins University. "After her defeat in 2002, she has a long way to go to come back. In addition to that, the Democrats are already lining up to run against Ehrlich in 2006, and most of them are in front of her.

"She's become almost completely invisible," Crenson continued. "It must have been painful for her, because she went into isolation for months. I guess she recognizes her political career is over."

Donald F. Norris, director of the Maryland Institute for Policy Studies and Research at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, said Townsend's two election losses - for Congress in 1986 and last year's race for governor - have done irreparable damage.

"Virtually every single political observer in the state said Kathleen Kennedy Townsend lost the race because she ran a lousy campaign," Norris said. "That being said, I don't see how she could emerge as a viable candidate unless she went through a complete metamorphosis. She would have to reinvent herself."

Townsend faces a delicate task as she tries to reconstruct her public image after squandering an embarrassment of riches. She lost to Ehrlich despite an early double-digit lead in the polls, an enormous initial fund-raising advantage (which Ehrlich later overcame) and the history of a string of Democratic gubernatorial victories dating to 1970.

"Certainly, when you lose an election, you begin thinking about what you want to do with the rest of your life," said Ellen R. Sauerbrey, a Republican who was defeated twice by Glendening. "The decision then becomes are you going to become a candidate in the future. If so, you behave one way. If not, you behave another way."

Today's party could be viewed as among the first tentative indications that Townsend still harbors hope of a return to elective office.

Another was inscribed on the paperweights she recently distributed as gifts to staffers: "Thank you for joining me on this great mission. We worked hard, fought the good fight, and made a difference. And yes, the struggle continues. It is still up to us to shape and change the future."

Still, Townsend has remained silent as the Democratic Party has struggled with a message and an effective means of countering Ehrlich's plan for slots, no new taxes and deep budget cuts. While party heavyweights such as Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan and Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley take increasingly vicious swipes at Ehrlich, Townsend's voice is nowhere to be heard.

"I don't think she has any real political aspirations," said John Kane, chairman of the Maryland Republican Party, who added that he was among those receiving an invitation to today's picnic. "In her case, she not only lost an election, but the whole Kennedy-legacy thing fell on her shoulders, fairly or not. She's a nice person who should not have been in the race for governor. I think she is trying to bring closure to that part of her life."

Townsend would not comment yesterday on how she coped with the loss or went about a recovery.

"Kathleen has been involved with her family, business and professional opportunities and getting her life in order," said Terry Lierman, a Washington lobbyist and health company executive who was Townsend's campaign chairman in voter-rich Montgomery. "At the end of the campaign, there was so much going on. This is a good time [for the party]. The deck has been cleared."
 
 

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