A Kennedy's last chance?

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend may be able to salvage her race to become Maryland governor because of her gun record -- and the sniper terrorizing her state.

By Anthony York

Oct 24, 2002 | This suburban area has become the new ground zero for American paranoia. High school football games are relocated to undisclosed, secret locations. School recesses are moved indoors. People are told to zigzag as they walk down the street, and duck for cover while filling their gas tanks. Groups of friends hug when they say goodbye, telling each other to "be careful" without ever mentioning the sniper.

Fear of the sniper has penetrated the sense of security of daily life in Maryland, from Bethesda to Baltimore, Aspen Hill to Annapolis, in subtle but profound ways. And it has changed the political debate in one of the country's most hotly contested governor's races between a Democrat, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who is a strong proponent of gun control, and a Republican, Rep. Robert Ehrlich, R-Md., who thinks the state gun laws may have gone too far and is on record criticizing the type of ballistics fingerprinting that is used by Maryland and is now being considered for the rest of the nation.

Meanwhile, Townsend, the eldest daughter of slain former attorney general and senator Robert F. Kennedy, is trying desperately to hang on to her once formidable 28-point lead over Ehrlich. After a summer of campaign missteps, including criticism of her choice of a white running mate as Ehrlich picked the state's black Republican Party chairman; having to fire a campaign consultant Julius Henson, who called Ehrlich a "Nazi"; and enduring criticism from some Democrats that she was an ineffective campaigner, that lead has vanished. The two are locked in a statistical dead heat, according to recent polls. And now there is a sniper terrorizing the good people of Maryland.

Some say that may wind up favoring Townsend, who has not shied away from making guns central to her campaign. And that rankles Ehrlich. Ehrlich spokeswoman Shareese DeLeaver says Townsend has shamelessly used the sniper attacks for political advantage. "This is an ongoing tragedy. It's not a time to grandstand politically. It's a time to pray for the families," she said. She points to a new gun-control ad the Townsend campaign is airing, saying "Their modus operandi from the beginning has been scare tactics."

Townsend says she's focusing on education and healthcare. But, she says, "certainly the issue of guns and common-sense gun laws has become an issue. He raised it before the sniper," she says, a reference to Ehrlich's earlier statements that the state should review its gun laws, including the ballistics fingerprinting database.

She scoffs at insinuations that she is using the sniper attacks for political advantage. But she says, since the attacks, guns are on people's minds, and should be among the issues talked about in this campaign. "I think that he's taken a very bizarre position, that we shouldn't discuss it, and that people shouldn't know his record," she says.

In Maryland, gun control is generally considered good politics. The state has some of the toughest gun control laws in the nation. Under a law passed in 2000, ballistic information, known as a "fingerprint" from all new handguns are required to be entered in a state database. One of only two states (New York is the other) to have such a system, law enforcement officials and gun control advocates say the database is a valuable tool in assisting law enforcement. But since being enacted in 2000, the database has traced guns to only two crimes in the state, and neither of those cases have led to an arrest. That led Ehrlich to question whether the $1 million database was working.

That has changed since the sniper attacks began. The law does not demand ballistics information from rifles like the one the sniper is using, a compromise reached to help appease lawmakers from rural areas. But since the attacks began, both candidates have talked about expanding the database to include rifles.

But Ehrlich spokeswoman DeLeaver says Townsend's campaign has distorted Ehrlich's views on gun legislation. "He would like to take a look at it and see why it hasn't aided in fighting crime," Deleaver says about fingerprinting. "He wants to talk to the people who actually use it. If it works, fine, let's see how it can be expanded. Our opposition and her surrogates seem to think that 'review' is a dirty word. It's not."

Next Page: The subject of guns is unavoidable

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