I was going to riff on frying an egg on the sidewalk, but we should avoid clichés like the plague. Thanks for stopping by for my weekly dispatch. You can follow me through the week on the twitters.
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STORY OF THE WEEK: The primary election on Sept. 13 has big stakes for Gov. Dan McKee. If McKee loses, he’ll be remembered as the short-term gov who inherited the office, thanks to being lieutenant governor, after Gina Raimondo got a job in the Biden administration last year. On the other hand, if McKee wins the Democratic primary, he will likely emerge as the favorite to retain Rhode Island’s top job in the November general election. The perception of a close race between McKee, Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, and former CVS Health exec Helena Buonanno Foulkes suggests that the incumbent has yet to close the deal with voters. Now, though, the governor has embraced campaign mode, as he demonstrated while making his case during an interview on Political Roundtable this week. McKee, 71, pointed to a series of legislative accomplishments (including the passage of gun bills and driver’s permits for undocumented residents), a string of investments around the state, and he said his experience makes him the best choice to continue leading the state. With Rhode Island experiencing record-low unemployment on his watch, McKee asked, “What do you think I’m going to get done if I get the four-year term? Significantly more.” The governor was less interested in responding to other questions – more about that later in this column. With less than six weeks to go, the primary race will continue to get more intense, with two M-words – money and message – proving vital. With second-quarter finance reports out this week, McKee’s campaign crowed about having $1.2 million, the most cash on hand, although not spending that down by this point can also be seen as a debit. A complicating factor is the field of five leading Democrats, meaning that a bit more than 30% of the vote could determine the winner. Still, the question remains: in an election season marked by anxiety about inflation and other concerns, will voters feel sufficiently moved to vote out an incumbent and choose a different direction?
UNDECIDED: Almost 31% of Democratic primary voters were undecided when The Boston Globe polled Rhode Island in June, so it’s worth pondering where all these votes will land. Conventional wisdom holds that undecided voters tend to favor challengers. But Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight, in a look at presidential races, says otherwise.
MORE MCKEE: While Gov. McKee focused on some issues in our interview, the governor (whose Roundtable appearance followed many months of requests) took a different tack in engaging with some other questions. One case was how, as the ProJo’s Kathy Gregg reported, his administration leaned on the state’s public records law in declining to disclose whether the governor’s office was subpoenaed in the state-federal ILO educational consulting contract controversy. Why not disclose that information in the interest of transparency? Here’s part of McKee’s response: “We have really talented, skilled people that have been in five different administrations that can make those decisions. If anybody has a question they can call our communications department. But we know we’re getting the proper advice to manage the state properly.”
On whether he was surprised by Attorney General Peter Neronha’s finding that Tony Silva, McKee’s former chief of staff, appeared to throw his weight around as a state official advocating for a personal development project in Cumberland, the governor said in part, “Well, that’s the attorney general’s business. In fact, halfway through, one page in, they said …, there’s no laws broken. That’s the main thing that for me, there was no laws broken.” On his own involvement in the matter, McKee added: “That report said that I was not involved. I knew I wasn’t involved. I do know that any other scandals [that] are brought up in the media, and pushed by the opponents in this campaign that have been going at it for a year and a half – there’s nothing there. They’re going to come up empty. I told you it was going to come up empty. And the Tony Silva issue, they came up empty ….”
STATE OF THE NATION: A tale of two states.
Kansas, via NPR’s Becky Sullivan: “On Tuesday night as results rolled in for Kansas’s consequential vote on abortion rights, advocates on both sides of the abortion debate were watching closely, looking for lessons as they prepare for similar votes on abortion rights measures this fall. The results in Kansas — the nation’s first statewide vote on abortion rights after Roe v. Wade was overturned in June — has upended traditional wisdom about the politics of abortion. In a Republican-leaning state that preferred President Donald Trump by 15 points in 2020, the outcome was a landslide that few expected: Nearly 60% of voters chose to support abortion rights.”
Arizona: “Mark Finchem, a state representative and election conspiracy theorist who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, has won the GOP nomination to oversee voting as Arizona’s secretary of state ….” And “Two days after polls closed in Arizona, The Associated Press called the Republican primary for governor for former local news anchor Kari Lake, an election-denying new convert to Republican causes.”
WIND: Via my colleague Ben Berke: “The Community College of Rhode Island announced plans this week to open the state’s first-ever training program for workers seeking construction jobs in the offshore wind industry. CCRI President Meghan Hughes said workers will do much of their coursework in the Lincoln campus’s athletic facility, using the pool to learn how to survive in icy offshore waters, and repelling down the building’s exterior to simulate scaling an offshore wind turbine. ‘Simply put, it is our job to be the workforce training engine that powers the offshore wind industry,’ Hughes said at a press conference announcing the new program on Wednesday.”
CLIMATE: Former state Rep. Aaron Regunberg, writing in The New Republic, describes why he sees personal choices (like going vegan or embracing cycling) as a vital part of responding to climate change: “Watching solar panels spring up on a roof I pass every day, or waving hello to a fellow bike commuter, can be a lovely—and sometimes necessary—day-to-day reminder that there are people in every part of my community who care about this crisis (and who could be recruited to engage more actively in the climate movement, if they haven’t yet taken that step). The possibility that my own solar installation or bike use or vegan dish at a friend’s potluck could lend this same boost to others is, I think, worth real consideration.”
ON THE STUMP: Voters will have their say on the latest attempt by the Rhode Island Political Cooperative to elect more of its members to the General Assembly. For now, it’s worth noting how some Co-op candidates and supporters have softened their rhetoric a bit. While the “whole new government” concept remains in use, Matt Brown’s campaign for governor has polled in the single digits and his initial shot across the bow from last September – “We’re gonna win the whole f—— Statehouse” – seems to have morphed on the doors into a milder question of whether voters think their government is working for them.
MEDIA: After a bad second quarter, job cuts are expected at the Gannett, which owns a lot of newspapers in southern New England, including the ProJo, Newport Daily News, Standard-Times in New Bedford and Herald News in Fall River. Via Poynter: “Strong cost reduction moves are on the way. Media division head Maribel Perez Wadsworth, in a note to staff, warned of impending layoffs. ‘In the coming days,’ she wrote, ‘we will … be making necessary but painful reductions to staffing, eliminating some open positions and roles that will impact valued colleagues.’ Gannett stock, already down roughly 45% for the year, fell another 28.5% in midmorning trading, indicating Wall Street had not expected such bad results. CEO Mike Reed said in a conference call with analysts that the company’s long-term strategy of developing paid digital subscriptions and digital advertising remains sound. But he made no effort to sugarcoat what happened last quarter and is expected for the remainder of 2022.”
CITY HAUL: Former Providence Mayor Joe Doorley, who preceded Buddy Cianci’s rise to power, died this week at age 91. He was remembered as someone who helped set the stage for the Providence Renaissance.
REPUBLICAN THUNDER: The changing face of the Rhode Island GOP can be seen in how Sen. Jessica de la Cruz (R-North Smithfield) has succeeded outgoing Sen. Dennis Algiere (R-Westerly) as the Republican leader in the RI Senate. Algiere is a soft-spoken moderate who often seemed part of the gang with the Democratic leadership of the chamber. De la Cruz is a conservative who welcomes the chance to make her stances known on various issues. After folding the tent on a short-lived CD2 run, she’s set to become a more visible figure on Smith Hill – and perhaps a candidate for statewide office down the road.
THIRD PLACE: Long before Brown alum Andrew Yang helped launched the Forward Party, as a way to appeal to Americans turned off by the two-party system, there was a similar effort in Rhode Island. Back in 2008, fueled by a sense that Rhode Island politics needed an alternative, Ken Block created the Moderate Party. “If his nascent Moderate Party could pull enough people into the center, he reasons, it could have an impact, helping to put some pressure on the ruling Democrats,” according to my report at the time in The Providence Phoenix. “While efforts to develop third parties have had little success amid America’s two-party duopoly, a poll recently commissioned by Block, among other results, found that 78 percent of the respondents felt that neither major political party represents their views on the way state government should be run. Seventy-four percent of the respondents said they would be supportive of a new moderate political party that was ‘not beholden to the state’s labor unions and special interest of the left or in lock step support of Republicans on the right.’ Block got 6.5% of the vote as the Moderate Party candidate for governor in 2010, enough to gain formal ballot recognition for the upstart party. But Block later eschewed the party he helped create, running as a Republican for governor in 2014.
FOOD TOWN: Your humble correspondent was living in the Boston area when Trader Joe’s came to town. It was a fun place to shop, with an appealing mix of semi-prepared foods, frozen gyoza and other options. That helps explain why excitement has been building for the planned Trader Joe’s in the I-195 District, which was officially confirmed by the grocer this week. In related news, Rory’s Market and Kitchen is slated to open a 6000-square-foot shop in the Nightingale Building on Westminster Street in downtown Providence next month.
KICKER: Back in the day, it was noteworthy when satirists and comedians became a leading source of news for young people. Now, Jon Stewart is still in the entertainment game, although he’s also cemented his status as a moral arbiter who can pressure reluctant lawmakers to act in the interest of veterans.
Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis@ripr.org
