Four years ago, Gov.-elect Parris N. Glendening stood at a State House podium surrounded by his most trusted advisers and his wife to announce his transition team -- as his running mate, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, sat on a couch behind them, looking on.

That image seemed to underscore the prevailing political chatter at the time that Glendening's surprise choice for lieutenant governor was little more than his chance to capitalize on the Kennedy name as a vote and money magnet among certain constituencies.

In sharp contrast this year, Townsend is a key component in the Glendening re-election campaign, a tight race against Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey that will be decided Nov. 3 by Maryland voters.

Townsend is now as visible, if not more visible, than the governor. Glendening rarely makes a move without her. She is with him on the campaign trail and figures prominently in the ticket's television ads.

And in a biographical ad about Glendening, she's the one speaking, not him.

"It's fascinating because it's very unusual," said Herbert C. Smith, a political scientist from Western Maryland College. "For a lieutenant governor to take that role, I don't think it's ever happened before in Maryland politics.

"I thought it was a master stroke," Smith said.

Townsend acknowledges that her role as ticket-mate has changed since the last election, in which she kept a low profile, appearing most often among black voters.

"There's clearly a difference between this campaign and the last one," she said.

"We didn't know each other very well, when we first joined together," Townsend said. "But we developed a trust with one another, and obviously I've built a record of accomplishment that's been more visible than what I did before. So it makes sense, since we do have a strong partnership."

Hers, however, is not an uncalculated role.

Polls have consistently shown that Townsend is overwhelmingly well liked among divergent groups of voters across Maryland. Neither Glendening nor Sauerbrey fares nearly as well.

"The obvious is as obvious as it can be: Her popularity ratings are higher than his are, and he's hoping that some of her popularity will rub off on him," said Carol L. Hirschburg, a Sauerbrey spokeswoman.

Townsend enjoys remarkably high name recognition for a lieutenant governor. She is known by 88 percent of likely voters, more than half of whom have a favorable impression of her, according to a poll for The Sun and other news organizations released last week.

By contrast, just 43 percent of the electorate knows Richard D. Bennett, a former U.S. attorney who is Sauerbrey's running mate, according to the poll by Potomac Survey Research of Bethesda.

But a more important polling number for Townsend is that only 18 percent of likely voters have an unfavorable impression of her -- compared with 39 percent for Glendening and 34 percent for Sauerbrey, the survey showed.

"Hey, we know it," said Glendening-Townsend campaign manager Karen White, who acknowledges the up-front role of the lieutenant governor in this race.

"We think it's important to let the voters know that they're getting a package here -- they're getting a governor and lieutenant governor," White said. "This is as much her campaign as it is his campaign."

Supporters hasten to point out that Townsend's high-profile role is not merely a campaign device, but the outgrowth of a genuine working partnership that has developed between Glendening and his lieutenant governor since the 1994 campaign.

"They have a very good relationship, which has not always been true with a governor and a lieutenant governor," said Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, a Baltimore Democrat and former Maryland House speaker who weighed a primary challenge against Glendening last year.

"I think she's found a very comfortable niche as lieutenant governor," Cardin said.

Four years ago, when Glendening announced his transition team, a role for Townsend was noticeably missing from his remarks. But within weeks he gave his lieutenant governor -- a constitutional office with no specific duties -- the vague charge of overseeing criminal justice issues.

Townsend seized the opportunity. She put together an eager, young staff, took up the banner for innovative anti-crime measures and carried it across the state.

Initially dismissed by many in the state's political hierarchy as a "lightweight" -- a label that persists in some quarters -- Townsend gradually made believers out of some of the toughest sells in Annapolis. Slowly she elbowed her way to the table in the administration.

Glendening reportedly follows her lead on criminal justice issues -- and, more importantly, seeks her input on matters political.

"She has a very important role in this campaign especially when we're discussing strategy," White said.

Working behind the scenes

This year, she also has worked behind the scenes to smooth over differences between Glendening and other Democrats.

For instance, she served as intermediary between the governor and Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and, to a lesser degree, Prince George's County Executive Wayne K. Curry -- both of whom backed a Glendening rival in the Democratic primary and held out until Thursday on an endorsement of the ticket.

Townsend also has kept the lines of communication open with the White House, after Glendening chastised President Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky affair, withdrew an invitation to a fund-raiser and skipped an event in Maryland with Clinton last month.

Since Glendening's remarks, Hillary Rodham Clinton agreed to appear as the guest of honor at a fund-raiser in Virginia for Townsend, an event that is expected to yield $250,000 for the campaign. And Vice President Al Gore is coming to Maryland later in the month to help the re-election bid with a luncheon fund-raiser.

On the campaign trail, Townsend and Glendening contrast. The governor can seem stiff and awkward, while she is animated and approachable.

"She's better delivering the message than he is," Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan said. "She has matured as a campaigner in the last four years."

While some of the awkwardness of a political novice has been polished since 1994 -- she ran for public office once before, in 1986, and lost -- Townsend still holds to an idiosyncratic style.

At times, she can seem to get lost in her own enthusiasm and, while taking a moment to digress, can ramble off the message. To punctuate a point, she will jab her fist into the air, her arm half-extended, a cheerleader for the cause.

But what can seem quirky compared with the often slick style of highly experienced politicians appears to work for her with voters.

"People like Kathleen," White said. "You can see people's faces light up when they meet her."

Her appeal as a candidate also seems to go beyond the so-called "star quality" of a Kennedy.

"She does have a certain charisma about her that resonates with Marylanders," said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, a Prince George's Democrat.

"She's warm and she's open, and people are comfortable when they're around her," White said. "You can have a discussion with her as a wife, as a mother, as the lieutenant governor. You're talking to a person you can relate to on a very real level."

Complete strangers think nothing of using the familiar "Kathleen" in addressing her. Older voters occasionally will refer to the 47-year-old mother of four as "the Kennedy girl."

Name recognition

Townsend's name recognition stems from being the oldest daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and niece of John F. Kennedy.

"Clearly there a number of people who have very wonderful memories of members of my family," she said.

"Very frankly, hardly a day goes by that somebody doesn't come up to me and say, 'I met your father in Rochester,' 'I worked for him in Indiana,' 'I joined the Peace Corps because of your uncle.' 'You know, I'm a teacher because I heard him speak at UCLA.'

"I mean literally, every day, that happens at least once," she said. "So that's part of it."

Townsend's elevated role does fly in the face of conventional political wisdom that it is more efficient to have candidates on a slate attend different events during an election, allowing the campaign to be in two places at once.

"I've never heard of such a thing," said Hirschburg of the Sauerbrey campaign. "A gubernatorial candidate is wanted everywhere and gets a huge number of invitations, and a lieutenant governor can carry some of that load. It's a poor strategy because they're misusing a resource -- unless, of course, I'm misreading this and he's not getting the number of invitations we are."

Smith, the political scientist, said that putting Townsend out front is "a soccer-mom stratagem" that could pay off for Glendening. "In an election this close, every advantage, every asset, can be a critical one," he said.

While he does not argue that point, Keith Haller, president of Potomac Survey Research, does not believe Townsend's role will necessarily make a difference at the polls.

The choice really comes down to Glendening vs. Sauerbrey, Haller said.

"I don't believe people are going to vote for the lieutenant governor, when they go into that booth," he said. "Does she help Glendening? Yes. But will it be enough to give Glendening the added votes? That's still a question."

Pub Date: 10/12/98