Democratic candidate for governor Nellie Gorbea, Rhode Island’s secretary of state, is the guest this week on Political Roundtable.
Topics include her case for the job, her approach on jobs, education and healthcare, and what steps should be taken to ensure the future of American democracy.
Gorbea is among five major Democrats seeking to be governor, including Matt Brown, Helena Buonanno Foulkes, Luis Daniel Munoz and Gov. Dan McKee. The primary election is September 13.
Here’s a transcript of the conversation:
Ian Donnis :
Nellie Gorbea, welcome back to The Public’s Radio. What makes you different and better as an alternative candidate to Governor Dan McKee, Helena Foulkes,
Nellie Gorbea:
I’ve been really encouraged by how people have really loved the fact that I am a candidate who comes with 30 years of community leadership experience, along with now seven and a half years of delivering a government that works for people. And I think that those two factors have really made a difference, as I talk with people out in Rhode Island.
Ian Donnis:
Helena Foulkes had a senior management role with CVS Health where– a company with a far bigger budget and many more employees than the state of Rhode Island. Why is that level of experience not superior to yours.
Nellie Gorbea:
Because government is very different in how it runs than the private sector. In government, leadership has to be able to work well with others, it has to adapt to to a lot of different stakeholders. And what we’ve seen in my seven and a half years as Secretary of State is that I’ve done that. I’ve done the work of, you know, not just managing my budget, but also delivering a government that works for people, whether it be an election, during a pandemic, with a record number of voters that everybody felt very happy about about voting safely and securely, or small business owners that love the work that we’ve done at the Department of State to make it easier for them. You know, all of those things happen when you’ve got leadership that understands how to work things in the private sector. I’ve worked in the private sector for profit, I’ve worked in nonprofit leadership, and I’ve worked now in government leadership, and bringing that level of experience through all those sectors is what makes things work. In addition, I’ve passed two dozen bills through the General Assembly. I know how to work the politics of that building, to make government work for people.
Ian Donnis:
What would your approach be, if elected governor to trying to create more good jobs in Rhode Island to improve the state’s economy?
Nellie Gorbea:
I’m running for governor because I want to make sure that this economy is more equitable and just, and the way we do that is by doubling down on investment, investing in Rhode Island businesses, particularly small businesses here in our state. In addition to that, as a way to prepare for that we absolutely need to address the housing crisis. And I want to be the housing governor, for sure.
Ian Donnis:
We’ve heard for years and years how Rhode Island needs better public schools. There’s been little if any progress over the last 20 years. What would you do to try and change the dynamic so that Rhode Island could move forward in a more productive way in improving public schools?
Nellie Gorbea:
We absolutely need and I will push as governor, a constitutional amendment that says that every Rhode Island child has a right to a quality education. That is fundamental, because it gives the legal framework to hold systems accountable. And it says that that is our mission statement, our values is that every child should have a quality education. Now, I’m also going to be a governor that invests very much in early childhood development and education. We need to make sure that working families, that parents can leave their child in a space that helps educate their children helps that brain develop really well. And at the same time, we need to pay those workers a quality wage, which is why we have to make it affordable at the same time as we need to pay the workers, you know, an equitable wage. That means that we have to be involved as a governor. Now, we also need to make sure that K through 12, we addressed the education funding formula, and I look forward to looking at higher ed opportunities, particularly career training opportunities in fields other than just defense. For example, like offshore wind and other technologies that are rapidly developing in our economy.
Ian Donnis:
You expressed concern earlier this year when the proposed merger between Rhode Island’s two largest hospital groups Lifespan and Care New England was rejected. You said the state needs a solution that provides good care at an affordable level. That sounds great, but Rhode Island for years has lacked a long term hospital strategy. How would you create this public approach with good care and affordability that you talk about?
Nellie Gorbea:
Yeah, well, first and foremost, I think we need to invest in primary care in the state and make sure that Medicaid reimbursement rates are addressed. That’s — everywhere I go, in health care people are talking about the low levels of Medicaid reimbursement so we’re gonna have to tackle that. But a problem like how we’re going to deal with our hospital systems is one where I would bring together not just the heads of hospitals, but I would bring doctors I would bring representatives from nurses, I would bring in Brown University because they are a major player. I mean, we are so lucky that we have an Ivy League medical school amongst our midst. A community health care and we — By bringing those people together, we develop a plan for the long term that we can start chipping at and making sure that in the end, we are providing Rhode Islanders with good health care options that help keep them healthy and safe.
Ian Donnis:
Your first TV campaign ad said you do not come from a well-connected family. However, your father was CEO of a very significant company in Puerto Rico. How do you square that?
Nellie Gorbea:
Look, I moved here 30 years ago as a faculty spouse, I didn’t know a soul. I was working up in Boston, I learned about a Governor’s Commission on Hispanic Affairs. I joined that I then joined the board of the United Way, then joined the board of Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island, of Gateway health care, the Women’s Fund and through that community work, got to know people here, my family continued to live in Puerto Rico. The truth of the matter is, is that I grew up in a professional middle class family and my father worked his way up from being a line engineer all the way to yes, being a part of a management buyout. But that was his life. My life was very different. I went to Princeton on financial aid, I did work study jobs. And when I got married and moved to Rhode Island, I built my life and my professional career from scratch here. And it’s been a great place to do that. And it’s one of the things that I love about Rhode Island, that it gives people from a variety of backgrounds the opportunity to make it and to be a part of the community even to hold elected office.
Ian Donnis:
In that first campaign ad, you said your proposal to tax some of Rhode Island’s biggest corporations, would generate enough money to fix Rhode Island’s housing crisis and to extend pre K to every child in Rhode Island. Governor McKee’s campaign responded by saying your proposal would generate less than $100 million a year, far less than the governor has backed putting into affordable housing, and really questioned whether that was enough to reach the goals that you said it would accomplish. How do you respond?
Nellie Gorbea:
Look, my proposal is with regards to how we should meet any kind of budget deficits. It was not a one time solution for everything. You know, Democrats should be the party of small business, we should be the party of dealing with this housing crisis. And we should also be investing heavily in people through education. And what I said in that commercial has actually resonated with many, many people across our state. And I’m looking forward to working with people to making sure that this economy is working for regular folks.
Ian Donnis:
President Biden was in our corner of the universe in southern New England this week. Polling shows that even in very blue Rhode Island, there’s not a lot of enthusiasm for Biden leading the charge in the next presidential election. Do you think he’s the right guy to do that?
Nellie Gorbea:
Look, I am really glad that we don’t have President Trump. Look, look at where we came from. This has been a very challenging time for President Biden, I think that they have put together an administration that’s incredibly diverse, that is handling some real big global crises. And like I said, I’m glad we don’t have a Republican president in the White House right now.
Ian Donnis:
Is Biden the best choice to lead Democrats in 2024?
Nellie Gorbea:
You know, that’s gonna be his decision whether or not to run, I’m running for governor of Rhode Island and to take care of the people here in our state.
Ian Donnis:
There are 10s of millions of Americans who don’t believe in the results of the 2020 election. Is it possible to restore faith in elections for those people?
Nellie Gorbea:
I hope so I am an eternal optimist, otherwise, I couldn’t be in elected office. I am glad that here in Rhode Island, we worked very hard to ensure that everyone across the board, whatever their political party or persuasion was, understood what we were doing in the election and how we kept the checks and balances of safety and access throughout the entire election process. And I’m very proud of the fact that unlike in other states, Rhode Islanders, all, you know, 521,000 of them that voted in the 2020 election, really felt very comfortable with how they were able to vote and the security of that ballot.
Ian Donnis:
Some critics of President Trump say 2020 was just a dress rehearsal, and now there are election deniers running to be Secretary of State in a number of states across the country. Beyond updating the Electoral Count Act, something being pursued on a bipartisan basis in the Senate, what steps would you advocate to strengthen and ensure the preservation of American democracy?
Nellie Gorbea:
Look, we have to this is not a silver bullet kind of problem. We need to make sure that good people are are running for office we need to do campaign finance reform. And I say that as you know a candidate right now who’s in the thick of it, right? The challenges to good people running for office that represent the diversity that is the United States is not supported by a current campaign finance system. And I look forward to working on that as governor, and to continue to improve the numbers of regular Rhode Islanders that are able to run.
Ian Donnis:
Former House Speaker Nicolas Mattiello was not particularly well liked by many of the female lawmakers in the Rhode Island House during his time there. Why did you campaign with him in 2018?
Nellie Gorbea:
So let’s take a look back at that race, right? It was a moment where he was running against a Republican. And I was asked to walk within his district with him. And I saw it as an opportunity to reach out to voters that would hopefully vote for my re-election as well. It is something that, in the end, was very small. And, you know, relationships in politics matter. You know, I get why a lot of my opponents are bringing this up. They don’t want to focus on the fact that, you know, my one of my opponents, the corporate CEO, gave to Mitch McConnell, who actually was responsible for overturning Roe v. Wade and really worked hard on that. It’s, you know, Rhode Island is a state of personal politics. And through my work in the General Assembly with the General Assembly members, we were able to pass two dozen bills, many of which are very progressive in nature. And that was built on the relationships that I was able to build.
Ian Donnis:
One of the issues that dog former Governor Gina Raimondo was problems with UHIP the state’s social service benefit infrastructure. If you were governor, when that problem was ongoing, how would you have handled that differently?
Nellie Gorbea:
Actually, I remember sitting down with Governor Raimondo and giving her some advice, having done a number of IT projects successfully in government. The way to avoid UHIP was to involve state workers that knew the answers that knew the programming that needed to happen to involve the people that are experiencing case management in our state. You don’t just hire it out to a, you know, out of state company and allow IT people to run the project. You make the people who are going to be using the system, either as the social service– safety net people or the case managers to come up with what that system should look like, what it should feel like and hold the programmers accountable.
Ian Donnis:
In 2015, the state leased new voting equipment. You chose a system that transmits results over the internet, do you regret or stand by that decision?
Nellie Gorbea:
No, we — so first of all, it’s a system that it uses modems to transmit the results right at the end. And there are four different layers of security. So we have the most important one of those levels of security is the paper ballots. So you’re always able to go back and be able to hand count and to look at the evidence of how those votes were handled. So you know, we actually rely on a number of security measures, not just one that’s just happens to be how you transmit the early results or the instantaneous results. All of those processes are double checked. And then we finally have an audit process that happens after the election. That is, again another gold standard of election safety. And I’m very proud of the work that we’ve done in making sure that Rhode Islanders understand that our elections are safe and secure.
Ian Donnis:
That’s all the time we have so we need to leave it there. Thank you for joining us Democratic candidate for governor Rhode Island’s Secretary of State, Nellie Gorbea.
Nellie Gorbea:
Thank you, Ian.
