Townsend back in the game

After several weeks of declining numbers, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (D) is inching back into the race. Plagued by internal divisions within Maryland's Democratic Party and several well-publicized gaffes, Townsend had been losing ground to a surprisingly strong challenge by Republican Robert Ehrlich -- to the point of falling behind the GOP challenger.

However, the latest Baltimore Sun poll has the race in a statistical dead heat, with Townsend nursing a narrow 45-43 lead.

"They gave Ehrlich pretty much an open field to run in August, but sooner or later, the free ride was going to end," said Herbert C. Smith, a political science professor at McDaniel College. "The Townsend campaign made some mid-course corrections. The advertising began as most of us expected it would. It's taking its toll."

However, Townsend's negatives remain dangerously high, thus hinting that one of the nation's closest gubernatorial campaigns will remain so until the end.

Posted October 02, 2002 08:53 AM | Comments (0)