The late summer-early autumn festival circuit gets a big boost with the return of PVD Fest this weekend. Thanks for stopping by. You can follow me through the week on Bluesky, Threads and X.
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My weekly “One on One” interviews are now available as an Apple podcast. As Rhode Island shifts to the general election, you won’t want to miss in-depth interviews with candidates in some of the most consequential races. Please consider following the feed!
1. STORY OF THE WEEK
If you want something done, ask a busy person. That seems to be the mantra of Ken Block’s independent run for governor of Rhode Island. With just 46 days until voting ends Nov. 3, Block got a lot of media attention this week as he seeks to blitz his way into contention. He was the subject of a lengthy Kathy Gregg piece in the ProJo, talked with Gene Valicenti and joined me for an in-depth interview on One on One. Block also rolled out a stream of policy initiatives: a five-point plan to tackle costs, a call for more transparency in state government and a critique of the relatively late timing of the Rhode Island primary. Polls show many Rhode Islanders think the state is headed in the wrong direction, so Block’s self-description as a problem-solver frustrated by serial failures of state government seems suited for the times. It’s worth noting, too, that independents compose far and away the biggest bloc of voters here — 52%, compared with 34% who are Democrats and 14% Republicans.
But Block had only about $91,000 in his campaign account as of the last filing, not enough to qualify for state matching funds. When the 60-year-old Barrington businessman announced his campaign earlier this year, he said he planned to raise $1 million and to use an equal amount of matching funds. Now, Block vows to have enough to run a competitive race, and with considerable personal resources, his campaign is open to loaning himself money to support his effort. But time is ticking. As an independent, Block lacks the party infrastructure that helps boost Democrats and Republicans. Conservative-leaning independents and some in the GOP may be loath to support Block because of his work disproving of President Trump’s 2020 election conspiracy theory. And polling ahead of the primary indicated an uphill general election fight for Block against Democratic nominee Helena Foulkes, who has considerable momentum after crushing Gov. Dan McKee by 24 points.
Block, however, points to how a WPRI poll last month indicated a 34% approval rating for Foulkes — 48% among Democrats — after her campaign has spent millions buffing her image. That shows, he said, how “not only Democrats, but voters across the state are open to alternative choices. They're not happy with the choices that they have generally, and nobody is inevitable. I look forward to continuing what I'm doing right now, which is showing voters how I think, how I'm different than all the other candidates. And I'm asking them a simple question: If you want things fixed and they haven't been fixed for a long time, shouldn't you consider voting differently?”
2. AROUND THE BLOCK
Here are some highlights from my One on One interview with Ken Block.
Education – Asked about the economy, Block made the point that better public schools are vital. He said the key after decades of talk with little progress is in emulating successful approaches in other blue states.
Why state government struggles with computer systems – “We don't have the right people in the right jobs with the right skills to A, negotiate the contracts, to manage the contracts and to make sure that technically we are reviewing the software as it's delivered to us and ultimately it goes live... In my estimate right now, we need about a $3 million budget every year to hire the staff necessary to take care of this problem and make sure that we procure and manage these difficult and very expensive projects successfully.”
Healthcare – Block proposed creating a regional healthcare marketplace to lower costs, though he acknowledged creating this would be a heavy lift.
Working with the General Assembly – “My job is to communicate. My job is to make the case. I'm going to do things very differently than — I can't remember the last governor who held a weekly press conference. I will hold a weekly press conference. We're gonna talk about what we did the past week, what's upcoming the next week. And most importantly, I'm gonna set the table for the things that matter to everybody in this state. And where I need the General Assembly’s support, I will privately make the ask and hopefully we can work it out.”
3. LOOKING AHEAD
Helena Foulkes signaled after her big primary victory that she is mostly focused on expanding support for the general election, by talking about bringing people together and targeting progress in the anxiety about affordability. Foulkes remains the favorite in the race, and while it would be presumptuous to publicly talk about before Nov. 3, the Democrat and her inner circle have got to be thinking about the business of putting together a transition, standing up an administration in January and trying to chart some early wins.
4. THE SETTLED FIELD
The state Board of Elections this week certified the primary vote and decided to not make any changes in Republican Aaron Guckian’s narrow 259-vote win over rival Elaine Pelino. This kind of division is a long-running feature of the Rhode Island GOP, which hasn’t seen a statewide candidate elected since Gov. Don Carcieri won re-election in 2006. In a statement, Guckian said, “One-party rule has not served Rhode Islanders well and we need to restore balance to state government. Families are being crushed by the cost of living, taxes, fees, energy bills and a state government that now spends more than $15 billion a year. Rhode Islanders deserve better.” His campaign touted Rhode Island Works Smarter, “his proposal to give frontline state employees a 24/7/365 way to identify waste and inefficiency, reward employees for verified savings and return savings to taxpayers.”
5. CHARTERCARE
Six months after an event celebrating new ownership for CharterCARE, the parent of Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in North Providence, the outlook is once again marked by a level of uncertainty. Attorney General Peter Neronha has, for years, monitored this more than any other state official. A quarterly financial update to the AG’s office was due this week, and a Neronha spokesman said it will be publicly posted in the future. For now, Neronha said in a statement that his concern about CharterCARE’s financial outlook “has never waned, even when hospital ownership traded hands. Private equity severely damaged these hospitals, and that is bad enough. But they are also part of a broken health care system with many serious issues, each problem interconnected and compounding the next.” In related news, the hospitals’ largest union, United Nursing and Allied Professionals, staged informational picketing this week to protest the lack of a contract. UNAP also criticized CharterCARE’s new ownership for the closure of a home health and hospice agency. CharterCARE spokesman Otis Brown said the agency was closed by CharterCARE’s previous owner. He said a competitive contract offer has been presented to UNAP. While Neronha calls for state leadership to remain vigilant, Brown said new CharterCARE is “answering the challenges caused by years of corporate neglect and mismanagement by our former private equity owners. We share a sense of urgency in our pursuit of positive financial performance. We are working diligently with all our stakeholders, partners and regulators to achieve our planned turnaround goal. We are confident that we are well on the way to reaching that goal.”
6. RI POLI-MEDIA PEOPLE
Sympathy to U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner on the passing of his mother Suzanne, 74, this week .... Steve Kavanagh is the latest person to leave House Speaker Chris Blazejewski’s office as part of a reorganization. Kavanagh served as legislative director for Govs. Don Carcieri, Lincoln Chafee and Gina Raimondo before moving to the speaker’s office during Joe Shekarchi’s tenure. Ray Simone and Lynne Urbani previously left the speaker’s office …. Former ProJo Statehouse reporter Chris Rowland has moved from The Washington Post to The New York Times …. Brown alum/WSJ reporter Te-Ping Chen, an ace freelancer for me at the Providence Phoenix, has a novel coming out next year…. Kelly Coates and Angelo Marocco are ending their long association with the Carpionato Group, one of New England’s largest real estate companies. Domenic Carpionato and Charles “Chip” Rogers will join Sheryl Carpionato as trustees …. Jonathan Darling, spokesman for New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, is signing on as spox for the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families …. The annual #OutRiding event to support a scholarship fund in the memory of our friend the late AP reporter Erika Niedowski is coming up on Oct. 17.
7. (UP)RISE OF THE BOTS
Anxiety about the possibly existential threat posed to humanity by artificial intelligence has burst into the headlines in recent weeks, sparked by an incident when automated scripts from OpenAI jumped their bounds and hacked into another company. Dario Amodei and some other tech titans have responded by calling for slowing the spread of AI – a concept backed by such odd political bedfellows as Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon. Closer to home, Uprise RI – the former website of progressive Steve Ahlquist – is now propelled by nine AI avatars “each with their own personality, style, AI model and assigned beat.” Aidan Ryan, who spoke with me for his story, has more in The Boston Globe. AI can certainly play a useful journalistic role in parsing large amounts of data. But when it comes to reporting day to day stories, readers and viewers may prefer the many excellent reporters at different news organizations in Rhode Island rather than a bloodless computer. Uprise itself gives that view credence in explaining why its nine AI avatars all have human names and human faces: “Because we looked into it — and it turns out almost nobody wants their local news delivered by something called ‘NewsTron 9000’ or ‘Reporto McReportface.’”
8. THE FUTURE FORETOLD
Back in 2016, then-state Rep. Blake Filippi (R-New Shoreham) made an amendment to RhodeWorks legislation attempting to limit the acquisition and use of data about the movement of motorists. Although the amendment was defeated on a largely party-line 55-15 vote, Filippi’s arguments sound current given the recent backlash against Flock-type cameras. “The privacy issues we’re confronting, I think, are quite immense,” he said. Filippi said testimony from Peter Alviti, then director of the state Department of Transportation, indicated that the truck tolling system would gather such precise timing data that it could be determined if a trucker leaving the highway was making a delivery or taking a bathroom break. “That raises profound privacy concerns,” Filippi said at the time. While RhodeWorks targeted trucks for tolls, Filippi – who decided not to seek re-election in 2022 – expressed concern that passenger cars might also be tracked.
9. REALITY CHECK
A new report from the United Way of Rhode Island finds that almost 43% of households in the state can’t afford basic expenses. UWRI CEO Cortney Nicolato spoke with my colleague Joe Tasca about the hardships facing those fitting the category known as Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained Employed, or ALICE: “The median family income here in Rhode Island is $86,000. What they need is $111,000 a year to survive. The big challenge is that (costs and incomes) aren't matching. Wages that we've seen over the last few years have stayed relatively flat, but costs have risen dramatically. And the ALICE calculation contains and includes things like cell phones, energy costs — all those things that have risen over the last few years.”
10. HOLLYWOOD ON THE PAWTUXET
Check out these 10 locations across the Ocean State that have shared the screen with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
11. KICKER
Say it ain’t so, Big Papi. With the imminent 10th anniversary of David Ortiz’s last game with the Red Sox, ProPublica reports that he used his influence to help block a reform that would have made it more difficult for moneylenders to prey on baseball families in the Dominican Republic.
