ANNAPOLIS- One of the first things you notice about Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is her firm handshake. She grips your right hand in hers while holding your elbow with her free hand, and begins pumping your arm. The whole time, she looks you squarely in the eye trapping you in her deep brown eyes and making you feel you’re the only two people in the room.
It’s that magnetism that political insiders say has helped make Townsend’s career. The consensus among Republicans and Democrats is that Townsend has matured over the past four years into a polished campaigner who is ready for higher office. Gov. Parris N. Glendening, recognizing her transformation, has made Townsend the administration’s point person on economic development a job that positions her for a run for the state’s top seat.
“Anytime a person is a lieutenant governor, you have to ask if they are qualified or prepared to step up to be governor,” Glendening said. “In my mind, the answer’s `yes.'”
The eldest child of the late Sen. Robert F. and Ethel Kennedy, Townsend is Maryland’s first female lieutenant governor and the first Kennedy woman to hold elected office. Despite her political heritage, it’s taken the 47-year-old Townsend 13 years to reach this point in her career.
Townsend’s first campaign was in 1986 for a Baltimore County congressional seat. Republican incumbent Helen Delich Bentley beat her handily, but Townsend was commended for her funky, upbeat style: jogging door to door in a dress and Nikes literally “running for office.”
“I’m still the only person to beat a Kennedy in a general election,” Bentley said recently.
Bentley labeled Townsend a “carpetbagger” then because Townsend who grew up at the family estate in McLean, Va. had lived in Maryland for just two years.
Bentley since has followed Townsend’s career and said “she has matured in a positive fashion.”
After eight years during which she worked at the state Department of Education and then at the U.S. Department of Justice Townsend ran for office again. This time as Glendening’s running mate.
Because Townsend had little political experience, critics said Glendening chose her simply for her family roots: the Kennedy name draws big contributions and is popular among blacks and liberals.
“Four years ago, some of the media did not give her a fair chance because she was a Kennedy and had never run for statewide office,” Glendening said. “I thought she was the very best (choice) and I have never regretted it.”
One of the reasons she wasn’t used in the election was because she wasn’t a polished speaker, something she continues to work on.
“If you’re open-minded and smart, you’re going to improve the way you present yourself,” said Townsend’s cousin, Delegate Mark Shriver, D-Montgomery. “She’s made an effort to improve and has done very well.”
During last year’s re-election campaign, Glendening featured Townsend prominently in television commercials a sharp contrast to 1994, when he was seldom seen with her.
“Notice how Gov. Glendening went out of his way (in the campaign) to link his name with hers and to be seen with her at every opportunity,” said Allan Lichtman, American University history department chairman. “They were linked like Siamese twins. And Glendening, who is a very shrewd politician, would not have done that unless it was to his advantage.”
During her first term, Townsend concentrated on anti- crime initiatives. Glendening said it was a natural fit because of her work as deputy assistant attorney general in the Clinton Administration and her law degree from the University of New Mexico.
In that role, Townsend instituted “HotSpots,” a first- of-its-kind program to intensify enforcement and prevention strategies in 35 high-crime neighborhoods, and “Break the Cycle,” a program requiring drug-addicted criminals to undergo more frequent drug testing and face escalating penalties each time they test positive.
It was the first time that a lieutenant governor who has no formal constitutional duties had been given such a substantive area to handle, Glendening said.
“Some people say that the job of the lieutenant governor is just to stand by and wait for the governor to die,” Glendening joked.
It’s true that even in Maryland’s recent history, lieutenant governors have had a mostly ceremonial role. Former Gov. William Donald Schaefer and Lt. Gov. Melvin A. Steinberg, predecessors to the current administration, had a contentious relationship in their final term. Schaefer, known for holding grudges, successfully reduced Steinberg to a $100,000-a-year figurehead after the two had a dispute.
Unlike Schaefer and Steinberg, Glendening and Townsend actually like each other.
“I wouldn’t use the word `co-governorship,'” said Townsend, “but I think we’ve got a great team.”
Townsend said she plans to attack economic development like she did crime: establish a Cabinet, attend meetings, find out what the most pressing problems are, and then develop programs to solve them.
Helping her in her efforts will be the new Secretary of the Department of Business and Economic Development, Richard C. “Mike” Lewin, and Schaefer, the new comptroller.
Lewin was Townsend’s top choice for economic development secretary. The two first met at a party in 1984 shortly after Townsend and her husband, St. John’s College teacher David Townsend, moved into Lewin’s Towson neighborhood, where the Townsends have reared their four daughters.
Lewin told Townsend when they first met how much he had admired her father he was one of the organizers of the “Robert F. Kennedy for President” campaign in Maryland, a few weeks before the senator was shot to death in 1968.
“We became pretty fast friends,” Lewin said.
Lewin seems to have true admiration for Townsend’s intellect. “Something I’ve noticed since I’ve been in government which has been only two months is her ability, when we’re dealing with complicated issues to cut through to the critical variable,” he said. “That’s what I think is truly demonstrated leadership.”
But Lewin can’t ignore the value of her political connections, either. “She has the linkages,” he said, “to some of the most sophisticated business people in the world.”
Those connections may serve Townsend well in future bids for political office. She is being touted in political circles as the next governor, the next congresswoman, even the next vice president of the United States.
Political columnist Lichtman has talked to people on Capitol Hill about the possibility of a Gore-Kennedy ticket in 2000, and when he does, he said, “They actually know which Kennedy I’m talking about!”
Lichtman marvels at the strides Townsend has made. “The criticism four years ago was that she was only a name,” he said. “She’s far more than a name now. She’s a person of consequence.” -30-