BOB EHRLICH, 2nd District congressman who hopes to be Maryland's first Republican governor in 34 years, sat at a table in his Towson campaign headquarters holding a media fete he called "Burgers With Bob."
On a wall behind Ehrlich were two charts that show just what an uphill struggle he faces. To Ehrlich's right was a chart based on a poll that his staffers took of Baltimore metropolitan area voters in February. The results showed a little less than 50 percent of area voters would pick Ehrlich for governor and just over 40 percent his expected opponent in the November general election, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.
Ehrlich led among whites in the poll, 58 percent to 40 percent, and trailed 8-to-1 among black voters. The candidates split the women's vote.
To Ehrlich's left was a second chart, depicting the results of a statewide January poll. It showed the Republican trailing, 50 percent to 35 percent. Ehrlich had a slight lead among whites and trailed among blacks by as much as he did in the metropolitan poll. Townsend had a slight edge among men and women of all races.
Ehrlich can overcome that deficit - if Marylanders decide they prefer a man who was born here and has blue-collar and working-class roots to a woman born to wealth and privilege whose family thinks its scions are entitled to public office simply because they're the grandchildren of a man named Joe Kennedy.
Speaking to a group of about 10 reporters, Ehrlich commented on that Kennedy mystique and how it might play here in Maryland.
"It's not Bobby Kennedy or Camelot or Massachusetts," Ehrlich said. "It's Kathy Townsend versus Bob Ehrlich."
Indeed, when it comes down to Ehrlich versus Townsend, the contest pits a representative with a record of fiscal restraint against a woman who's part of an administration Ehrlich called an example of "inept, expensive government that's spent outside its means."
Townsend's supporters will probably pass the buck to departing Gov. Parris Spendening - uh, Glendening - on that one. But the very area Townsend had sole responsibility for as lieutenant governor - juvenile justice - is the one in which she's failed miserably.
Such details seldom hurt a Kennedy, however. Townsend's uncle, John F. Kennedy, did virtually nothing in the U.S. Senate for eight years. The country made him president, with the help of some shady Democratic doings in Illinois and Texas during the 1960 election.
