TGIF: Ian Donnis’ Rhode Island politics roundup for May 22, 2026

My suggestion: while enjoying the long weekend, pause to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Thanks for stopping by. You can follow me through the week on Bluesky, threads and X. Here we go.

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Memorial Day weekend signifies different things – a time to remember the fallen, what some consider the unofficial start to summer and the start of heightened political combat between Gov. Dan McKee and Democratic rival Helena Foulkes. WPRI-TV and Emerson College primed the pump this week with the latest in a string of polls showing Foulkes in a favorable position. It depicted an overall 20-point lead for Foulkes, a wider spread for her among independent voters (32 points) and a narrower one among Democrats (12 points). But McKee is telling everyone who will listen that he will beat Foulkes by about 5 to 7 points in the primary. The governor’s campaign sent an email ahead of the release of the WPRI poll, warning that Foulkes “has real vulnerabilities with the voters who will decide the race.” In other words, McKee’s campaign is tying its hopes to elevating negative views of Foulkes in the roughly three months until the Sept. 9 primary. So what will break through as a fusillade of TV ads buffet Rhode Islanders in the summer of 2026? “The question is, what’s going to weigh on the voters’ minds heavier – the bridge or the opioids?” WPRI political analyst Joe Fleming told me in an interview. Campaigns use negative advertising because it generally works. But Foulkes has almost three times as much money in her campaign account, so she has the capacity to saturate the airwaves. The danger for McKee is that the Washington Bridge is a tangible issue for many Rhode Islanders. The opioid crisis, which the McKee campaign continues to connect with Foulkes via her leadership of CVS, has hit home for a lot of people, although the issue tends to be a bit more abstract.

A new consensus emerged decades ago that improving Rhode Island’s public schools, especially in Providence, was vital for the state’s future. “Education is the only thing that’s really important,” writer David Halberstam said during a 1992 conference at Providence College, weeks after a state commission presented a 150-page report, Educating All Our Children, to Gov. Bruce Sundlun (per ProJo). “If you take care of that, everything else will take care of itself.” Yet here we are, 34 years later – more or less in the same boat — and this week the news emerged that Providence will soon regain control of its schools. In a statement, Mayor Brett Smiley pointed to progress on early child education, school facilities and after-school and summer programming. But independent candidate for governor Ken Block noted how fewer than a fifth of Providence students are at grade level. “All of the adults involved in educating our urban core public school students share the blame for this failure,” Block said via statement, adding that he thinks the state should maintain control. “No one in charge of the Providence schools – neither the city nor the state – has brought the changes that our most disadvantaged students desperately need.”

House Speaker Chris Blazejewski’s bill to create an office of inspector general emerged a few days after the initial hullabaloo about the proposal. GOP candidate for lieutenant governor John Loughlin, who had floated a similar concept a few days before Blazejewski, lambasted how the speaker’s plan leaves out scrutiny of the General Assembly. Loughlin pointed to how the legislature’s budget has climbed to $63 million, from $37 million, since he left his House seat to run for Congress in 2010. “Rhode Island families are right to ask why the legislature’s own spending has nearly doubled while it now exempts itself from the watchdog it is creating for everyone else,” Loughlin said in a statement. The Tiverton Republican urged the House to embrace Delaware’s IG model, which “protects core legislative functions while still allowing real, independent scrutiny of how taxpayer dollars are spent on staff, benefits, travel, consultants, and grants.”

***In a letter to House Finance Chairman Marvey Abney (D-Newport), Gov. McKee called for amendments “to ensure the inspector general has visibility into government operations across all branches, including actions related to public finances undertaken by the General Assembly.”

***Blazejewski offered this response via statement for why his bill left out the General Assembly: “The inspector general’s office would be able to initiate investigations into state and quasi-state agencies, as well as municipal governments utilizing state funds. It would be an administrative agency of the executive branch, and therefore the legislative branch and the judicial branch are not included due to the constitutional requirement of separation of powers. This concept is not novel to Rhode Island.”

Legislative races in Rhode Island are often low turnout affairs in which friends’ and family’s support and a sustained focus on knocking on voters’ doors often makes the difference. So can seeding municipal offices like school committee and town council combine with stepped-up organizing to boost the flagging Republican presence in the General Assembly? “I believe that there is potential for Rhode Island,” Ken Naylor Jr., chairman of the Rhode Island Young Republicans, told me during an interview on One on One this week. “Rhode Island is a project for Republicans, and I believe that if we have a 10-year plan – and it’s going to take time, it’s not going to be overnight – with a vision that is long-term, I think we could be effective.”

With congressional Republicans leaving for recess without passing President Trump’s immigration enforcement package, there’s some broad pushback to the president’s so-called $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund. During a Senate hearing this week, U.S. Sen. Jack Reed questioned U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche about the proposal, and criticized the administration for being unwilling to commit to ruling out payments to people who rioted at the Capitol on January 6.

The state Judicial Nominating Commission has selected five applicants for interviews for an opening on the Rhode Island Supreme Court: Christopher Bush, Laureen D’Ambra, Luis Matos, John E. Roberts, and Joe Shekarchi. In related news, H. Philip West Jr., the longtime former executive director of Common Cause of Rhode Island, has submitted a letter to JNC, arguing that the revolving door law makes Shekarchi ineligible for consideration at this time. Shekarchi, who recently stepped down as House speaker, contends the Supreme Court is exempt from the revolving door law as a constitutional office.

Attorney General Peter Neronha announced a settlement this week with Monsanto over the harm caused to Narragansett Bay and other Rhode Island waterways by the chemical compounds known as PCBs. The $25 million deal has a potential value of up to $62.5 million, according to Neronha’s office, “depending on the outcome of related indemnity litigation currently pending between the Monsanto affiliates and PCB purchasers.” Considering that PCBs were banned in the U.S. in 1979, the timing of the settlement also tells us something about the long shadow of environmental harm. Just consider, for example, virtually all Americans have the “forever chemicals” known as PFAS in our bodies, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control, and the U.S. Geological Survey has estimated about half of the tap water in the U.S. contains some sort of PFAS.

Brendan Daly, one of seven siblings of former WPRI-TV reporter Sean Daly, has signed on as senior director for communications at PBS …. Congrats to ProJo alum Cynthia Needham on her promotion to managing editor for local news at The Boston Globe …. Sofia Barr, formerly with the Valley Breeze, has joined Ocean State Media as newsletter and social media producer …. Elsewhere in radioland, NPR’s estimable Bill Kurtis (“his voice is so hot, the mic drops itself”) is hanging up his microphone …. Gena Felix, the sister of state Rep. Leonela Felix (D-Pawtucket) is running as a Democrat for the seat held by Sen. Lori Urso (D-Pawtucket …. Francis Parra, founding artistic director of Teatro ECAS (and the better half of longtime politico Gonzalo Cuervo), is due to get the Rhode Island Pell Award for Outstanding Leadership in the Arts bestowed by Trinity Rep …. Dr. Francesca L. Beaudoin, an epidemiologist, emergency physician and addiction medicine specialist, has been appointed the next dean of Brown’s School of Public Health …. Emily Conklin, chair of the city’s Energy and Environment Commission, is running for the Ward 2 City Council seat in Newport … Jason Roias is leaving the United Way of RI to become major gifts officer for College Unbound …. Cranston Library Director Ed Garcia has won the Outstanding Librarian Award from the Rhode Island Library Association.

Former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, a liberal firebrand and pioneer in gay politics, died this week at age 86. Frank cut his teeth as one of the smart young people hired by Kevin H. White, who was elected to the first of four terms as mayor of Boston in 1968. Over time, Frank became known for his acerbic wit and rhetorical command. U.S. Rep. Gabe Amo offered this reaction: “From his work to support our economy through crisis to his leadership defending LGBTQ+ rights, Congressman Frank made a lasting impact on America.” U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner added: “His landmark work on financial reform helped save our country from economic ruin. Even in retirement he would often visit the House to share with us his sharp insights and wisdom on issues of the day.”

Man, writer Jonathan Franzen was prescient back in May 2011: “[T]he ultimate goal of technology, the telos of techne, is to replace a natural world that’s indifferent to our wishes – a world of hurricanes and hardships and breakable hearts, a world of resistance – with a world so responsive to our wishes as to be, effectively, a mere extension of the self. Let me suggest, finally, that the world of techno-consumerism is therefore troubled by real love, and that it has no choice but to trouble love in turn.”