Kim Ahern, the Democratic nominee for Rhode Island Attorney General, has had a lengthy career in state government. She spent nearly ten years as a prosecutor for over 1,000 cases and later served as a senior counselor for Govs. Gina Raimondo and Dan McKee. Most recently, Ahern was the first chairperson of the Rhode Island Cannabis Control Commission, the independent state agency responsible for overseeing the regulation and licensing of cannabis sales.
After winning the Democratic primary for attorney general in September, Ahern is the prohibitive favorite to become Rhode Island’s next attorney general. She will face Republican Alan Gordon in November’s general election.
Ahern spoke with Ocean State Media political reporter Ian Donnis about her policy positions, including how she aims to protect reproductive rights, limit gun violence and oversee the use of flock cameras.
Interview Highlights
On her priorities if she becomes attorney general
Kim Ahern: Rhode Island's attorney general is your top law enforcement officer. (My) most important priority is to keep Rhode Islanders safe, whether we're talking safe from crime or safe in protecting our fundamental rights and freedoms from this administration currently in Washington, D.C. My whole career has been dedicated to doing just that. As a prosecutor for the past three AGs, as a legal counsel to two governors, and as the head of (the Cannabis Control Commission), safety has been my top priority…
One thing that I talked about on the campaign trail and that I hope to do if I get there in January is to form a new unit dedicated to fighting for reproductive justice and a woman's right to choose… The new U.S. attorney general, (picked) recently by Donald Trump, has said that he is going to make it his mission to roll back reproductive justice in all 50 states. So it's a top priority for me to make sure we're fighting for a woman's right to choose, that we have a dedicated unit to do just that in the Rhode Island AG's office, which, by the way, is following our neighbors next door in Connecticut and in Massachusetts.
On the effectiveness of legal challenges against Trump administration policies
Ahern: I think we've shown in Rhode Island that we're punching way above our weight on these cases. In any case that I've been following, we've demonstrated that we are nimble, that we can get to federal district court here within days. Not surprisingly, our judges here are siding against the administration almost 100% of the time, which actually makes us more nimble than a lot of these bigger states, like California, for example, or in New York, where sometimes they're having to wait weeks, if not months, to get into court. We can do it very quickly and efficiently while standing up for Rhode Islanders' fundamental rights and freedoms.
On the status of the state’s lawsuit against 13 contractors over the Washington Bridge closure
Ahern: I live in Providence, but my kids do a lot of things in the East Bay. Their pediatrician's there. Some of their sports are there. Like so many Rhode Islanders, I feel that frustration. That being said, I haven't been at the attorney general's office since 2019, so I don't have the inner workings of the case strategy yet. If I get elected in November, that will be one of my first meetings with the transition, and I'm grateful to Attorney General Neronha for pledging to have a successful transition with me should I get there in November. So that'll be a top priority for me to make sure I'm hyper-focused on the status of that litigation.
On the use of Flock automated license plate reader cameras in Rhode Island
Ahern: I think whenever a new tool or technology is introduced, especially into the criminal justice realm, it's really important to have a transparent process, to have one where there's public accountability, to have one where we know, in particular, when (municipalities are) entering into data-sharing agreements with companies like Flock or anything like that, that we know exactly what's happening with that data. For me personally, I would be concerned about how long it's being retained (and) what's going on with it. Has the public had a proper vetting of it? And in particular, making sure it's not going into the hands of individuals that should not get it; in particular, ICE right now.
That being said, I was a prosecutor for just shy of a decade. I've prosecuted over 1,000 cases, so you'd be hard-pressed to find a prosecutor, I think, in this country that wouldn't want this as a tool in the toolbox if used effectively and used appropriately. That would be my priority in assessing any kind of Flock analysis or anything like that if I become the attorney general.
I would support if the General Assembly, for example, wanted to give legal authority to the attorney general to help set those guardrails, to help work directly with municipalities to actually set what the standard should be, not unlike what we did with the (law enforcement) body-cam program. Rhode Islanders should be really proud that we were, I think, the first state in the country to mandate statewide body-cams for police officers. I was in the governor's office at the time, and we worked closely with the attorney general's office and with municipalities around the state to make sure they were funded, and also so that the attorney general's office at the time was setting the rules for their use. I think that's a good model and example of what we could do with a Flock-like camera.
On preventing gun violence
Ahern: (The) top priority for me is to keep Rhode Islanders safe; making sure we're assessing how to make sure that dangerous weapons – in particular, “weapons of war” – are not in the hands of criminals, not in the hands of people with documented mental health histories. Making sure that, as soon as I hopefully become the attorney general in January, I'm working directly that same week with the police chiefs across this state to ask them what we could do to make sure if there's anything else that needs to be assessed, and then working closely with the General Assembly should that be the case.
