REPRESENTATIVE BOB EHRLICH hesitated for months before announcing his candidacy for governor of Maryland. And with good reason. To run he would have to risk a safe seat in Congress to challenge Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1. His name recognition was low, and early polls showed Townsend with a whopping 26 point lead. Sympathetic local talk-radio hosts speculated that while Ehrlich would be the GOP’s best candidate, he still had little chance of beating even a weak candidate like Townsend in this solidly Democratic state. He might make it interesting, they mused, but in the end, the result would be the same as it had been for decades, another Democrat in the Statehouse.
But as both candidates hit the campaign trail during the summer, Townsend’s early lead slipped. Her campaign quickly turned negative, employing the same race-baiting tactics that led Gov. Parris Glendening to victory in 1998. During the one gubernatorial debate, Townsend invoked slavery and lynching to justify affirmative action, while her supporters passed around Oreo cookies to insult Ehrlich’s African-American running mate Michael Steele. In a radio ad on black stations in Baltimore City, Townsend supporter Rep. Elijah Cummings warned listeners that Ehrlich “voted against real gun control, even voted against civil rights, voting rights and help for minority businesses.”
