Kathleen Kennedy Townsend

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
6th Lieutenant Governor of Maryland
In office January 18, 1995 – January 15, 2003
Governor	Parris Glendening
Preceded by	Melvin Steinberg
Succeeded by	Michael S. Steele
Born	July 4, 1951 (1951-07-04) (age 58) Greenwich, Connecticut
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	David Lee Townsend
Children	4
Alma mater	Harvard University University of New Mexico
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Roman Catholic
Website	kathleenkennedytownsend.com

Kathleen Hartington Kennedy Townsend, (born July 4, 1951) was lieutenant governor of the U.S. state of Maryland from 1995 to 2003. She ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Maryland in 2002. The eldest of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel's 11 children, and the eldest grandchild of Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, she is part of the Kennedy family. She was named for her aunt Kathleen Kennedy Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington, who died in a plane crash in 1948.

Early life and career

Townsend was born in Greenwich, Connecticut. Her godparents are her aunt, Jean Kennedy Smith, and Danny Walsh, one of her mother's teachers at Manhattanville College.^[1] She was the first of thirty-one grandchildren of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy.

She spent most of her childhood in McLean, Virginia and attended Stone Ridge School in nearby Bethesda, Maryland. She graduated from The Putney School in Vermont and then cum laude from Radcliffe College (later part of Harvard University) in 1974, receiving her bachelor's degree in history and literature. She then studied at the University of New Mexico School of Law, receiving her Juris Doctor degree in 1978. For several years, she worked as an attorney in New Haven, Connecticut while her husband attended Yale Law School. She moved to Annapolis in 1984.

In 1986, Townsend ran for Congress in Maryland's second Congressional district, losing to Helen Delich Bentley 41% to 59%, thus becoming the first Kennedy to lose a general election.^[2] She then went to work for the state government of Maryland, holding numerous government posts including assistant Attorney General. She also served on the State Board of Education, and as a presidential elector in 1992. Following this, she worked for two years in the Clinton administration, as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General.

Townsend married David Lee Townsend (born November 17, 1947),^[3] her tutor at Radcliffe,^[4] and now a tutor (professor) at St. John's College in Annapolis, on November 17, 1973 in Washington, D.C.. He is the son of L. Raymond Townsend and Delores Fahey. The Townsends have four daughters:

• Meaghan Anne Kennedy Townsend (born November 7, 1977 in Santa Fe, New Mexico);
• Maeve Fahey Kennedy Townsend (born November 1, 1979 in New Haven, Connecticut);
• Rose Katherine Kennedy Townsend (born December 17, 1983 in Weston, Massachusetts);
• Kerry Sophia Kennedy Townsend (born November 30, 1991 in Bethesda, Maryland).

Lieutenant Governor of Maryland

In 1994, Parris Glendening was running for Governor in a highly contested primary against Lt. Governor Melvin A. Steinberg. Glendening's selection of Townsend to serve as his running mate was widely credited for giving his campaign national support, and Kennedy money, ultimately for winning the Democratic primary. In the General election, Glendening and Townsend beat Republican candidate Ellen Sauerbrey in one of Maryland's closest and most controversial gubernatorial elections. The election was in doubt as charges of voter fraud led to a lawsuit by the Sauerbrey campaign to overturn the election, which was ultimately unsuccessful. Sauerbrey challenged Glendening again in 1998, but this time Glendening and Townsend won with a wider margin of victory.

2002 Maryland Gubernatorial election

In the Maryland gubernatorial election of 2002, Lt. Gov. Townsend ran as a Democrat, facing off against Republican Robert Ehrlich and Libertarian Spear Lancaster.

During the election, Townsend was criticized for her choice of running mate; she picked retired Admiral Charles R. Larson, a novice politician who had switched parties only a few weeks before. Larson was also a white male, unlikely to help minority turnout. In contrast, Ehrlich's running mate was Michael S. Steele, an African-American lawyer who had been chairman of the Republican Party of Maryland.

Alleged Oreo cookie incident

After a September 26, 2002 gubernatorial debate, which had occurred without reported incident, Paul Schurick, Ehrlich's communications manager, claimed that the Townsend campaign handed out Oreo cookies to the audience.^[5] Five days after the debate, Steele said that one or more Oreo cookies had rolled to his feet during the debate suggesting a racist statement against him, that of being black on the outside and white on the inside like an Oreo. "Maybe it was just someone having their snack, but it was there," Steele said. "If it happened, shame on them if they are that immature and that threatened by me." At the time of the debate, Schurick had not mentioned any such incident, but in November 2005 he claimed "It was raining Oreos... They were thick in the air like locusts. I was there. It was very real. It wasn't subtle."^[6] In a November 2005 Hannity and Colmes appearance, Steele agreed with Hannity that cookies were thrown at him.^[7] Neil Duke of the Baltimore NAACP, who moderated the debate, praised the "passionate audience" and noted their "derisive behavior"^[5] but did not see such behavior. "Were there some goofballs sitting in [the] right-hand corner section tossing cookies amongst themselves and acting like sophomores, as the legend has it?" Duke said. "I have no reason to doubt those sources; I just didn't see it."^[6][8][9] The operations manager of the building where the debate was held, interviewed three years after the event by The Baltimore Sun, disputed Steele's claim and said "I was in on the cleanup, and we found no cookies or anything else abnormal. There were no Oreo cookies thrown."^[6] Some eyewitnesses, including AP reporter Tom Stuckey^[10] and Project 21 representative Kevin Martin,^[11] have said cookies were handed out and thrown. Other eyewitnesses did not corroborate Steele and Schurick's claim.^[12][13]

Loss and criticism

Even though Maryland traditionally votes Democratic and had not elected a Republican Governor in almost 40 years, Townsend lost the race, gaining 48% of the vote to Ehrlich's 51% and Lancaster's 1%. Ehrlich became only the seventh Republican governor in state history, resulting in heavy criticism directed at Townsend from many party activists. In the end, most observers agreed that she had not demonstrated an ability to be a political leader.^{[citation needed]}

Current work

Since leaving office, Townsend has served on the board of directors for many organizations, and consultant to several corporations. She is chair of the Institute for Human Virology at the University of Maryland, serves on the Advisory Council of activist group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)^[14], and also serves on the boards of directors of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, Points of Light Foundation, Center for American Progress, and National Catholic Reporter. Townsend is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Inter-American Dialogue, as well as adjunct Professor at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, Visiting Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and Senior Nitze Fellow at St. Mary's College of Maryland. She was a commencement speaker at the Roland Park Country School for Girls on June 10, 2008.

2008 Presidential Election

In late 2007, Townsend, along with siblings Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Kerry Kennedy,^[15] announced that they would be endorsing Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primaries.

In response to subsequent endorsements by Caroline Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, and Patrick J. Kennedy for Barack Obama, Robert, Kathleen, and Kerry wrote in a January 29, 2008 op-ed, "By now you may have read or heard that our cousin, Caroline Kennedy and our uncle, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, have come out in favor of Sen. Barack Obama. We, however, are supporting Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton because we believe that she is the strongest candidate for our party and our country."^[16]

Once Obama won the nomination, however, Townsend and her siblings supported him in the general election.

Election history

1998 Maryland Gubernatorial Election (Lieutenant Governor's seat – sharing one ballot space with the nominee for Gov.)

1994 Maryland Gubernatorial Election (Lieutenant Governor's seat – sharing one ballot space with the nominee for Gov.)

Bibliography

• Failing America's Faithful: How Today's Churches Are Mixing God with Politics and Losing Their Way, Warner Books, 2007 (ISBN 0446577154)

References

• Official state government biography
• Congressional Quarterly Voting and Elections Collection

Footnotes

External links

• Official site
• Kathleen Kennedy Townsend at the Internet Movie Database
• Summary of Townsend's positions on the issues
• Audio/Video recordings of Kathleen Kennedy Townsend on her book Failing America's Faithful, from the University of Chicago's World Beyond the Headlines series
• My Father's Stand on Cuba Travel by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, The Washington Post, April 23 2009

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