Monday (Aug. 10) is the deadline to register to vote, so get moving if you want to cast a ballot this year. Thanks for stopping by. You can follow me through the week on Bluesky, Threads and X. Here we go.
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1. STORY OF THE WEEK:
Allan Fung – now an independent – set the recent high-water mark for a Rhode Island Republican when he got 46.7% of the vote in his 2022 tilt with Democrat Seth Magaziner. But no local GOP candidate for state or federal office has won since Gov. Don Carcieri got 51.01% in 2006, overcoming early election night expectations that his re-election campaign was going down in defeat. In his best Rhode Island performance, President Trump got 41.8% of the vote in 2024. So what does the Republican primary in CD2 between two sharply different candidates, Victor Mellor and Stephen Skoly – my guests this week on One on One – tell us about the current state of the Rhode Island GOP in Rhode Island?
Mellor is a full-on MAGA candidate who is actively campaigning and spending big – $1.4 million by the end of June. He’s on TV and staging a lot of events. Mellor marched to the Capitol on January 6th, and while he said he did not participate in any violence, he supports Trump’s blanket pardons, including those for people who violently assaulted police during the ensuing riot. Mellor is friendly with Middletown native Michael Flynn, a leader of the Christian nationalist movement, and he shares President Trump’s (false) belief that the 2020 election was stolen. Mellor vows that upcoming revelations will shed more light on what he says really happened on January 6th and in the 2020 election. He says Trump may visit Rhode Island to support his campaign, and that Rudy Giuliani is expected in the next few weeks. Mellor frames 2026 as a change election, and he rebuts concerns about Trump by saying that Ocean State Democrats have failed to make more progress on the economy and other key issues.
Skoly is more akin to a traditional RI GOP candidate. He won the endorsement of the state GOP, and he’s preferred by Republicans ranging from Ashley Kalus to Gary Sasse who contend Mellor is not fit for office. Skoly has raised and spent a lot less than Mellor, and his campaign is considerably less visible, on social media and in staging in-person events. Skoly initially gained attention in 2021 for suing the state after it shut down his medical office when he declined, for personal health reasons, to get the COVID-19. The East Greenwich resident says he has more credibility and recognition than Mellor, as someone who has lived and worked in Rhode Island for close to 40 years: “I have been an integral part of the community. I'm a practicing oral and maxillofacial surgeon. I've worked at most of the hospitals located in the central part of Rhode Island.” (By contrast, Mellor, a Woonsocket native, returned to the state late last year after residing in Florida for most of his adult life.) Skoly backs Trump’s Save America Act – described by critics as an election power grab – although when pressed, he acknowledged that Joe Biden was lawfully elected in 2020.
CD2 voters will have their say in the primary ending Sept. 9.
2. HOT FOR HAVANA:
While the two CD2 GOP candidates initially agreed not to knock one another, revelations that Mellor registered as a foreign agent for Cuba (h/t The Bulwark) led Skoly to call him out via a June statement: “This is not just a campaign issue. This is a judgment issue, a national security issue, and a fitness-for-office issue. Vic Mellor is a private citizen. He has not been elected to anything. He has not been authorized by President Trump, Secretary Rubio, the State Department, or the Treasury Department.”
Mellor is unapologetic about his Cuban gambit. When I interviewed him this week, he called it an attempt to bring more business to Rhode Island: “I’m gonna be Rhode Island’s best salesperson. I have no fear of going anywhere and getting that done.” Mellor said if he wins the primary, he would not stop his engagement with the Cuban government. Federal conflict of interest laws generally ban congresspeople from working on behalf of foreign governments.
3. THE RACE FOR GOVERNOR:
At 74, Gov. Dan McKee has warmed to the political fight of his life. The incumbent has steadily stepped up his media interviews over the last year or so, arguing more forcefully for his record in office. And McKee turned in an aggressive performance during a WPRO debate hosted by Bill Bartholomew this week. Fellow Democrat Helena Foulkes responded in kind as the two candidates traded barbs on a series of topics, including the Washington Bridge and Foulkes’ business record, getting chippy with one another at times. A series of polls have depicted Foulkes with a double-digit lead, so the big question for the incumbent is whether he can close the gap with just about a month until the conclusion of the primary race. Foulkes has a big financial advantage heading into the home stretch, and that could affect McKee’s ability to spread his message. But voters will have another opportunity to take the measure of the candidates when WPRI stages its debate on Aug. 18, and McKee and Foulkes will join me for separate interviews on One on One the following week.
4. REALITY CHECK:
During the WPRO debate, Foulkes and McKee scrapped over McKee’s level of involvement in a plan to secure, at least in the short term, Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital. It’s true that McKee backed the deal that put the cash-strapped hospitals on more solid footing. But that’s kind of off to the side of the issue – The hospitals would have run out of money were it not for an $80 million escrow fund secured by Attorney General Peter Neronha as part of a change in the hospitals’ ownership in 2021. Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos supported that change in ownership without reservation a year earlier. And McKee’s office declined to clarify his stance on a related question in 2021.
5. THE RACE FOR MAYOR:
David Morales picked up an endorsement this week from former Mayor Jorge Elorza, who called housing the biggest issue facing Providence. “The truth is that families like the one I grew up in are being priced out of Providence every day,” Elorza said in a statement. “This election is a referendum on who gets to enjoy being a part of our great city. Will Providence be a city only for the wealthy and well-connected elite or will there be room for working class families like those who live in my neighborhood?” Elorza’s imprimatur was striking, given how Mayor Brett Smiley folded his campaign back in 2014, 12 years ago this month, while throwing his support to Elorza. In the process, Buddy Cianci was rebuffed in his last attempt to recapture City Hall. Had Cianci won, Luis Aponte would have wound up as mayor since Cianci died in 2016. Elorza also shared a poll this week produced by Concord Public Opinion Partners showing Smiley holding a four-point lead over Morales (42%-38%), with a 5.6 percentage point margin of error. The polling firm is the research arm of an education advocacy group with which Elorza is affiliated.
Smiley staged his own event early in the week to announce a Cradle-to-Career education strategy. He said the plan “will bring our schools, City government and community partners together to better connect students and their families with programs, resources and opportunities available across Providence. By working together, we are ensuring every child in our city receives the support they need at every stage.”
6. PAXSON’S LEGACY:
Considering that she will mark 15 years as president of Brown University next year, it was only a matter of time until Christina Paxson announced her departure at the end of the upcoming academic year. The thing that jumps to mind in Brown’s recent history is a settlement with the Trump administration over alleged anti-Semitism and of course, the shooting on campus that killed two students and shocked Rhode Island last December. But 15 years is a long time to be a president of an elite university, and Paxson’s record includes a lot of accomplishments. On her watch, Brown ramped up its research, boosted financial aid, accelerated its move into the Jewelry District, and won naming rights for Rhode Island’s largest hospital group. In his letter on Paxon’s departure, Brown Chancellor Brian T. Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, also cited how the university’s endowment climbed to $8 billion in fiscal 2025, providing almost $370 million for Brown’s academic mission this fiscal year.
7. REVOLVING DOOR:
The state Ethics Commission voted this week to authorize a Supreme Court appeal of the decision paving the way for former Speaker Joe Shekarchi to potentially serve on …. the Supreme Court. Shekarchi’s lawyer, Tom Dickinson, called the move unsurprising and said he expects his client to prevail. On X, Attorney General Peter Neronha said he agrees with Dickinson. Local commentator Jessica David had a different reaction. On her substack, she says the whole revolving door story has broken her heart: “I want someone in this chain of position of power and authority to do the right thing for the right reasons. I want it to be unthinkable for the state’s most powerful elected official to waltz on to the state’s most powerful court. I want power to come with responsibility, sacrifice, and accountability. I want our elected officials to hold themselves to the highest ethical standards. In running for office, they are asking for our trust, and I want that to matter to them.”
8. DINING OUT:
The axiom that nothing succeeds like success has been playing out in and around Boston for a long time. The Hub is a vital city with a thriving economy. But success has a cost, including worsening traffic and sky-high housing prices. Now, “Boston dining feels as if it has reached a tipping point,” writes Boston Globe food critic Devra First. “This is a city where a liquor license can sell for more than half a million dollars. Rent and other expenses keep rising while thin margins narrow further.” First reports that well-known, well-funded out-of-town restaurant groups are swamping the ability of independent restaurants to get by. The potential winners from all this? Smaller cities like Portland and Providence: “Both cities have excellent, interesting dining scenes where independent businesses can thrive,” First notes. “Both offer a lower cost of living and operating.”
9. SHORT TAKES:
The Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council is looking for nominees for its 50th Annual Public Service Awards …. Yours truly moderated a gubernatorial forum at Children’s Friend this week on issues pertinent to children and families; coverage via Nancy Lavin …. Our Possibly podcast explains why it’s so cold in libraries in the summer …. The Lyres were a mainstay of Boston’s local rock scene in the ’70s and ’80s; Rest in Peace, Jeff “Monoman” Connolly …. With Todd Blanche, President Trump’s nominee for attorney general, facing uncertainty, U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse remains a vocal critic …. Can Rhode Islanders learn to love the zipper merge?
10. HIDDEN GEMS:
My colleague Ben Berke has a knack for highlighting unexpected stories. One of his latest is about how two artists who grew up in Fall River, and whose work has been widely shown in galleries and museums, are fostering the creativity of young people through what they call, “in a sort of tongue-in-cheek fashion,” the Fall River Museum of Contemporary Art.
11. KICKER I:
The ceaseless stream of sports betting commercials between innings of MLB games is bad enough. Even worse is FanDuel deploying the great character actor Luis Guzmán to portray a friendly bartender and suggesting that the sports-betting experience is just like a comfy, low-cost visit to the neighborhood tavern.
12. KICKER II:
Did the Red Sox overcome five deficits against the White Sox Thursday night to win in 13 innings their eighth straight? They sure did. It was the game of the year. Boston, 26-4 since July 1, is closing in on the Yankees and the Rays. The never-say-die attitude of the team stands in marked contrast to their disappointing early season performance. No one saw this coming, not me, not current Rhode Islander Lenny DiNardo, not anyone. But the 162-game season is a marathon, not a sprint. Baseball – just like life beyond the ballyard – offers a lot of opportunities to turn your season around. It’s all about making adjustments.
