RI Dem Party Decides Against Governor Endorsement

This episode dives into the recent fallout within Rhode Island’s Democratic Party, the implications of the party endorsement failures, and what it suggests about the broader political landscape. With insights from local political observer Bill Bartholomew, we explore what these internal shifts mean for upcoming elections, leadership, and policy priorities.

Key topics:

• The significance of the Rhode Island Democratic Party not endorsing Governor Dan McKee
• The internal party factionalism: McKee’s faction versus the anti-incumbent base
• How political energy and internal party dynamics reflect broader voter sentiment and change
• The impact of campaign messaging, especially the gubernatorial commercial and candidate performance
• The disconnect between campaign tactics and meaningful policy discussions such as housing and environmental initiatives
• The influence of party endorsements and internal alignments on election outcomes
• The role of media, social media, and traditional approaches in shaping voter perceptions
• Future opportunities for debate and issues-focused campaign conversations

Timestamps:

00:00 - Analyzing the Rhode Island Democratic convention and low-endorsing of Dan McKee

02:09 - The role of union endorsements and their potential impact on McKee’s campaign

02:35 - Does party endorsement influence undecided voters?

03:19 - The internal party factions and shifting allegiances over the past year

04:22 - The factional divide: McKee’s supporters versus reform-minded members

05:10 - Evidence of the party moving away from McKee: messaging and organizational shifts

06:30 - The internal energy and desire for change within the party base

07:09 - Helena Bonanno Folk’s momentum and the broader landscape of political change

08:14 - The significance of party energy as a reflection of voter mood and internal dynamics

09:01 - The implications of the party’s stance on candidate endorsements at the convention

09:41 - Historical parallels: party endorsements from past elections and their outcomes

10:02 - The focus on policy issues like housing, zoning, and environmental challenges

11:02 - The importance of substantive policy discussions over campaign messaging

11:55 - The evolving landscape of media engagement and campaign communication strategies

12:57 - Analyzing Governor McKee’s campaign commercial and the importance of authentic messaging

14:12 - The message and symbolism behind campaign visuals and gestures

15:07 - The importance of genuine presence and performance in political communication

16:05 - The state’s current priorities: healthcare, housing, and energy projects like Revolution Wind

18:10 - The disconnect between campaign messaging and the actual issues facing Rhode Island

19:17 - External perceptions of the political system and the importance of leadership authenticity

20:29 - Summing up: How do McKee’s and Folk’s visions differ for Rhode Island?

21:11 - Closing reflections: The undercurrent of voter undecidedness and internal party turbulence

Transcript

Bill Bartholomew 0:00

My thoughts on the Rhode Island Democratic Party failing to endorse the incumbent governor Dan McKee in his bout against Helena Bonano folks in the Democrat primary. Before I get into my analysis of this, I think I'll set the table here with Ted DC at WPRI. He laid it out pretty well what happened over the weekend in terms of the convention and the results.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

First night, 12 News is your local election headquarters, another setback for Governor Dan McKee's re-election campaign. Thank you so much for joining us here tonight. I'm Sheena Los Shudo. The State Democratic Party declined to make an endorsement in his race against challenger Helena Folks. 12 News politics editor Ted Nisi was there for us today at the convention.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

I do full momentum. I I really do. I all these oh I've been visiting all the cities and towns, and then to see the votes come in in the last week. Uh we have more endorsements coming. I think people are really ready for change. And and then momentum builds momentum.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

McKee's campaign has suffered a series of setbacks in recent weeks. He was down 20 points in last month's 12 news Emerson College poll. And just this past week, Democrats in his hometown of Cumberland endorsed folks. But in his speech, McKee urged the party to stick with him on September 9th. The vote here at the Teamsters Hall in East Providence got off to a bit of a chaotic start as electronic balloting failed and the party had to switch to paper ballots. The next big endorsement will be by the Rhode Island AFL CIO. McKee has been working hard to secure enough union support to get the AFL's backing. In East Providence, Ted Nisi, 12 news.

Bill Bartholomew 2:07

All right. We thank WPRI for that, Ted Nesey and the team over there. Look, uh that union endorsement is actually going to be, honestly, probably that's the one that if it swings away from McKee in any way, that's the one where you go, we're talking full-on collapse. But here's what happened over the weekend, folks. It was just the culmination of the inevitable here. There's a lot of layers to this. There's a lot of aftershock to consider. And then there's also just the ground game in real time here. When you take a look at this election, this election cycle. And when you take a look at this particular race, McKee Folks 2.0, if you will. Does this matter? Uh, I don't know. Does this move the 40% maybe or more percentage of people who are actually going to vote early or in person or by mail in that Democrat primary? Does this move anybody at all? If you're among the undecided, right? And you basically know who these people are, vaguely know who they are, vaguely know who McKee is, vaguely know who folks is. Does the party endorsement or a lack of endorsement, is that what's going to sway you? I'm not sure. I think it trickles out in different ways. You know, y'all, we we all know somebody who pays attention. They'll say, oh, you know, McKee, yeah, he's done. The party didn't endorse him. But it's not this massive title wave in and of itself. But it's just the culmination of what has been happening inside the Democrat Prime uh the Democrat Party here in Rhode Island for well, well over a year. I mean, honestly, all the way back to the last election. Honestly, all the way back to, I don't know, at least since I've been around, there's we've talked about it so many times, right? And I've kind of simplified it to say, well, there's the Northern Rhode Island mayoral peer group, that's McKee's kind of faction of the party. You've got Lombardi, the mayor of North Providence, all those characters, right? And then the Raymundo side. And all the players in government, outside of government, right? Inside the party, outside of the party, organizationally, uh, whatever. And that through line is roughly accurate, I think you can say, still. Right? If you take a look at McKee getting the endorsement of Bob DeSilva, the mayor of East Providence, and Lombardi and Beauchamp and Woundsocket and Grebion in uh Pawtucket. Even Da Silva, he was on the radio with us last week after this. And he was like, well, again, number one, loyalty. And yeah, there's a loyalty factor here with some of the remaining outfront McKee supporters. But behind the scenes inside the party, you don't even have to be an insider. You just you don't have to have any special tools or special access to see that this party has been shifting, not in the sense of being split 50-50 or something like that. It has decidedly, in terms of the levers of power, the people who are involved, it has decidedly moved away from Dan McKee. And it's way more than the Washington Bridge. It's way more than even the contemporary vibe, if you will, after the bad polling numbers for McKee. There's just a different energy in there. And you can see it in things like, for example, the Rhode Island Democrat Party sends out a weekly email blast. It's not like a media blast. It's just a anybody who wants to know what the party's up to. In it, they have a note from uh the uh chairperson, and then they have, you know, here's a couple of different events, and here's a couple of things that our party leaders have been up to. Oh, Nerona, you know, took on Trump with this, and Amore did that, and here's a local rep that did this. I I will I read these things every week, and it is rare that a Dan McKee mention is there, it certainly doesn't lead the coverage. It's just an attitude, right? So, what took place at the Democratic convention, no matter what anybody says, no matter what anybody tells you, it was kind of predictable, right? And you see it reflected in the failure to endorse in the lieutenant governor's race as well. Right? There's an energy inside the party. Maybe not inside, maybe not the state, maybe not even the political people, right? By the way, trying to get away from that word political class. Political people, right? People of a political mind here. I don't know if there's this huge energy to like, oh, we got to shift towards Helena folks. I know that there's, and we all know that there's an appetite for change, period. How that plays out in the different elections this year, mayor of Providence, governor, all that, that may or may not be simply reflective of an appetite for change. But in this Democrat Party, within the party itself, the people who are members of the party, and that kind of inner circled there. There's not only an appetite for change, they're trying to make it happen, and in many ways they are. And that's why when Helena Bonato Volks talks about momentum, yeah, she's probably feeling that on the ground. She's seeing it in polling numbers and obviously in fundraising, but the energy, sort of that tidal wave. You know, whenever you're around something, you get something going, you want that. It's not that you want to uh create a vacuum or an ecosystem that's you know, that's what Trump has done, for example, where he's just in there, he's going, you know, nope, nobody will stand up to him, evidently. I don't know, I've never met Donald Trump, never been in the room, but it seems like he's created a vacuum that is not productive. You can also create a vacuum that is productive, that is a mirror, right, for yourself. And so the party right now itself, the Democrat Party in Rhode Island, they're they're serving as a mirror to folks or to uh a candidate like Xi Kamzavorban in the uh LG race, right? To say, yeah, you're you what you are doing is reflecting what we are seeking. And so we're gonna give you that energy back. That's the vibe test, the real stuff behind this, all right. Now, on paper, it was kind of a 50-50 vote. They didn't, it's not like they endorsed folks. Now, I told you months ago, I said if at the convention, I think it was with McGowan, maybe the first episode of the season, if at the convention they endorse the state party, not the little, I mean, I don't get the little is pejorative, not the not the town committees. Those matter, believe me, they matter a lot, uh, but they also don't matter at all. They matter on the vibe side, they don't necessarily translate to votes, right? So if you're talking about momentum and energy, they can kind of matter. If you're talking about actual tangible results, I don't know. But on the state side, I told you that if they endorse folks, not don't endorse, but that they outright endorse Helena folks, that would be nuts. That would be nuts. Because as Dan McGowan reminded us today in roadmap, even in the Sundlin, Merth York, about what was it, '92, even then, as Sundlin was crashing and burning and so on and so forth, the writing on the wall ultimately gave way to or paved the way for Lincoln Almond. Even then the party endorsed Sund with encompass. And look, a part of this right now. Look. You want to hear issues talked about. And I know it's July, I know we're going to the beach. Look, I got my paddle board going here, man. I'm like, like, talk to me another time. That's like honestly, like, I'm just like trying to also like spend as much time not stressing, not over overthinking uh election season either, because what what can we all do, right? But one thing I want to hear is I want to hear the issues. I want to hear the specifics of the issues. Like, let's get into housing, man. Are we talking about a modular? Are we talking how are we going to rezone? How do we balance like Don Oyer, Senator Don Oyer and I were talking about a couple weeks ago here on the show? Like, how do we balance uh ecosystem, environmental protection, and zoning with the need to, given that we are like the second most densely populated place in the United States, state in the United States, region in the United States, how do we, where are we gonna build housing? What are we gonna do? Like these are factual, necessary discussions to be having. And instead, we are in this other space campaign-wise. And I think that's the real problem and dilemma. And I look forward to debate season, by the way, so we can actually like get into these issues on a on a granular level, maybe not, but on at least paying some closer attention to like what are the actual, what are we actually doing here right now in Rhode Island? And and and where does Helena folks want to take us? Does any, if I ask you that question, what are we actually doing in Rhode Island right now, and where does Helena folks want to take us? Can you answer either of those questions like confidently? And here's part of the problem. What's been fascinating to watch this election cycle as a media person is the engagement with media has changed a lot, right? Some candidates, some people, some staffers have definitely, and I think correctly so, leaned into a lot more of social media and sort of direct-to-consumer of AOL marketing. And that's probably smart. But not everyone's around Mandani. Um, and you know, there's still there's still a great need for traditional um media and traditional types of scenarios where somebody outside of your orbit is asking you questions. Again, going back to the same idea of why the governor's race, why it doesn't feel as rewarding as as we many people would like right now. I'm sure the governor feels this way too. I'm sure Alina Folk's at some level, although she is comfortable, I'm sure that there's a part of her, at least as a person who has been successful in life, understands the challenge and the value of competition in getting to the end result that is maybe in politics the best or most likely to get you elected. But maybe on a broader level, actually gets us somewhere moving forward. But part of the problem right now is the the governor has. Have you seen the new commercial? I I know we let me let me play and I'm gonna play the for if this is audio, you still can kind of get an idea of what's happening here. I want to play this for you. I'm gonna describe it for you as best as I can. And I'm not interested in going in and out of, you know, should he have should they have directed it differently or whatever. I'm just gonna ask you a couple of questions. I want you to think about this before we wrap up today. Uh, a lot going on, by the way, in the podcast. Uh, the the election season. I know I talked about paddleboarding, and I am I am getting excited about that. Uh, debate season ahead, election season ahead, the round uh election project here on Bartholomew Town starts in July. We'll have our debate schedule for you. We'll have some uh, well, on some, we'll have a ton of candidate interviews, things like that. We'll really kind of go back to the old school B Town 2018, 2020, 2022, 2024. The old school, we're gonna revisit that mode. Getting down and dirty with uh whatever random Providence City Council race might be available to discuss, right? We'll see how granular we get this time around. But we will have those statewide debates for you. Just locking down the details right now. So stay tuned for that. All right, here's the governor's latest commercial, and I just want to play this for you. Again, a lot of people beating him up on this for the performance. I'm not interested in the Matt aspect of it, whatever. I'm interested in something else. Let's just let's check this out.

SPEAKER_03 14:03

I'm Governor Dan McKee. Some people say I'm not the most polished governor. Let me tell you why. What joke?

Bill Bartholomew 14:10

All right, I just want to stop right there for the audio audience. So the governor's standing in front. I think it's Quantant. He's standing in front of, and behind him is like some seaport scenario, like manufacturing type of deal, like blue economy stuff. And then there's a windmill, but it's kind of blurred out. It's not the Black Island windmills, it's definitely not the Port of Providence either. Um I'm Governor Dan McKee. And then he stands there and he's putting his arms out. Like he's he stands in front of with the windmill behind him and he goes, I'm Governor Dan McKee. He put puts his arms out. And you know, right then and there. The reason why I'm noting this is because there's I have covered Dan McKee, have known Dan McKee since 2018. He was the first guest on Bartholomew Town. He was the first guest. 45 seconds after I started my first time hosting on WPR, Dan McKee was on the air, first guest, lieutenant governor. I've been covering this guy. I've interviewed him a million times. I have never seen the governor move, address a camera, stand in and just everything about this is uh very unnatural. And so I that that is kind of what my point is here, um, and how it relates to everything that came out of the convention, everything leading up to the convention, like I was talking about that vibe test, that energy test, the intangibles. Here's another intangible somebody uh following directions that hasn't been trained as an actor. Zoran Mandani is a performer. He's an artist. He understands, he lives in New York, he understands how to perform on camera, he understands how to perform on audio, he understands how to perform on stage, he can take direction from a different way, the way that a great basketball player can take direction from a great basketball coach. There's you cannot feign this kind of stuff. And the governor, right out of the gate, kind of widens his arms out. Again, I asked you that question earlier. What's the state really doing right now? Number two, what does where does Helena folks want to take the state? That's different, not just different. What about it?

SPEAKER_03 16:18

I'm Governor Dan McKee. Some people say I'm not the most polished governor. Let me tell you why. What joke?

Bill Bartholomew 16:25

And I hate I hate that line. Harvard educated guy. He's not an idiot. I've again, I I just don't like it. It plays into the what did I tell you? Melina folks, they're gonna say she ran CVS and they had a huge problem with opioids. And then they're gonna say over there, and folks are gonna say, McKee's you know, a nice guy, but he's incompetent. I just don't understand why we're leaning into that in any way when we have a healthcare crisis, an education crisis, a housing crisis, a basic affordability crisis on and on the goes.

SPEAKER_03 17:00

Revolution wind is a clean energy project that will save Rhode Island families money on their utility bill.

Bill Bartholomew 17:06

When's the last time you heard about revolution wind? Since the total deal that basically we paid off total as a country to get the hell out of the off to stop putting offshore wind and all the nonsense with the project off the coast, the 85% done. You remember the whole thing with Trump.

SPEAKER_03 17:23

When's the last time you heard someone talk about offshore wind that wasn't somebody who was opposed to provide power to 200,000 homes and create good paying union jobs for Rhode Islanders? Donald Trump tried to stop it. We don't allow windmills, we're not allowing any windmills to go up. But we fought against this idiocy and won. So I may not look polished, but this is what it looks like to get things done.

Bill Bartholomew 17:45

I'm governor No, what it needs that need people need to know what it looks like to get things done from a genuine standpoint, and what I just don't understand, and maybe we're gonna see it, folks. It's still early. It's just it's June 22nd. Maybe we're gonna see it. You're not telling the the right story though. And I think that may just be a misread in some way. Revolution wind, I mean it just I don't get it, man. I just don't understand what's happening. Like I just I just I just don't understand what's happening. I don't I I don't know what the d this this campaign season does not feel like it is addressing the problems that need to be solved so desperately. And I want to talk more about this on another episode. Because I think it's I think it's externalized well beyond any of the people here. They're the the political machine is now a game. It's it's always been a game, it's always been a system, it's always been a a thing of its in and of itself, right? But this version of it right now, it it's why is the governor out there drawing attention to the things that they've actually in real time managed because that's where the proving ground is. Now they're gonna say, well, take a look at the Washington Bridge, mismanaged, but the aftershock of the bridge is an available area to explore opportunities where the governor has delivered. You're not hearing from those people, you're not hearing from the businesses that did receive votes, you're not hearing from the municipalities that in the wake of the bridge received auxiliary funding for police so that the traffic could get under control. You know, that story is just I don't know why you don't wade into it a little bit. Because that shows leadership styles and it gives people an option and an understanding. Hey, I'm not saying that this is what you even want out there. But again, I ask you that question What is the state's actual program right now? Think of it like this. Let's let's boil it down as we sign off here. What's the state of Rhode Island's program under Dan McKee and what's Helena Bonano Folks' different program? Can you explain those to somebody at a at a hang this weekend, this coming weekend? Could you explain, like in the amount of time that someone will most likely retain interest? Could you say, here's what this what McKee does, here's what folks does. I'm not sure. And again, we're talking about 40 something percent undecided in most of the uh pollen. The convention, it just is what it is. It's kind of an insider thing, it matters, but it's not as big. I mean, if the AFL CIO goes folks, uh that's a big deal. And the reverberating consequences there, there's a lot to talk about as well down the line. How does this impact Joe Shakarchi's bid for the Supreme Court? There's a lot to unpack, man. And we'll do it. We got plenty of time. Talk to you next time here on Bartholomew Town.