Nellie Gorbea says use of right-wing article in attack ad a 'mistake' but stands by ad's message

PROVIDENCE — In her fight to regain momentum in the race for governor, Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea on Thursday put the spotlight on an article by a right-wing Rhode Island commentator slamming Gov. Dan McKee's emergency COVID orders.

The new TV ad, which launched Gorbea's first full-out assault on the incumbent McKee, features this headline: "A Blatant, Corrupt Power Grab by Rhode Island’s Governor."

The headline appeared over an article written by Mike Stenhouse – the CEO of the R.I. Center for Freedom & Prosperity – that ran in the National Review, and attacked McKee for extending pandemic emergency orders.

At the time, Gorbea actually criticized McKee for not being strict enough on masking and COVID prevention.

After hours of pounding on social media, her campaign announced that the version of her new ad that was airing had been sent to TV stations "erroneously."

“Our new TV ad is about the FBI investigation of corruption in the McKee administration and how it hurts Rhode Island families. We erroneously included an article that is unrelated to this topic," her campaign manager Dana Walton said in an email. "That version of the ad should not have been sent. The correct ad is being sent to TV stations and will be posted online."

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon to accept a union endorsement, Gorbea said she had watched the ad before it hit the air, but hadn't noticed the reference to the National Review article.

"We made a mistake in the details of the ad, but the overall story of the ad rings true," she said. "I was looking at the ad for the overall storyline, which is very much true, which is that the McKee administration is under investigation for corruption and contracting to friends and cronies and that still rings true."

The ad was produced by SWAY DC, which has worked for the Gorbea campaign since her first run for secretary of state in 2014. The campaign paid the agency $70,000 between January and Aug. 10, according to campaign finance reports.

The McKee camp immediately demanded Gorbea take the entire ad down.

“Nellie Gorbea’s decision to spread right wing propaganda in a Democratic primary shows how desperate her campaign is.

"The MAGA National Review publication, which Nellie uses in her ad, has defended 'the big lie' and spread conspiracies about voter fraud. If her intention is to run a campaign that represents Rhode Island values, that ad must be taken down."

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What does the article say?

National Review, the publication Stenhouse's article appeared in, describes itself as "a magazine of conservative opinion."

Published in September 2021, the article argues that McKee "illegally" overstepped his authority when he extended the emergency orders that he and his predecessor, Gina Raimondo, have issued since the start of the pandemic, most recently to continue to qualify for federal emergency relief funds.

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Among Stenhouse's arguments: "Under pressure from teachers’ unions and the radical Left to impose mask mandates on K–12 students, McKee was forced to play the ace up his sleeve and end-run the law.

"So he declared a new state of emergency, effectively extending his unilateral emergency powers for another six months, by claiming that the Delta variant presented a 'new' and different emergency from the original COVID-19 virus," the article reads.

Does the ad reflect Gorbea's opinion on masking, COVID actions?

In August 2021, Gorbea was on the other side of the school mask argument.

“One of the most important roles of government is to protect people and leadership means making tough decisions," Gorbea said. "In failing to call for a mask mandate in our schools, Governor McKee is putting our kids and educators at risk," she said then.

"We all want our kids in schools and masking will help us keep them there safely," she argued at that time.

And, "the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics are clear about the need to protect children from the highly contagious Delta strain of COVID-19."

Does Gorbea agree with Stenhouse's arguments on this and other subjects, including union activities? Or did her campaign simply see value in running the headline along with TV clips about the unrelated controversy – and FBI investigation – into a now-cancelled education consulting contract the McKee administration gave the ILO Group.

Her campaign manager Walton said: "We want to make clear that Secretary Gorbea does not support The Freedom Foundation or its offsets in any way. She knows that unions are the backbone of our economy and give working people a fair chance to have livable wages, reasonable benefits, and good working conditions. She walks picket lines. She does not cross picket lines.”

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Robert Walsh, who until recently was the executive director of the National Education Association of Rhode Island, tweeted: "@MSten37... is a leading voice for the anti-choice, anti-labor, anti-Democratic Party movement in RI. For @NellieGorbea to quote him in her negative campaign ad is indefensible. Say it isn’t so, Nellie, say it isn’t so.

"And yes, it would be best to take the commercial off the air."

UNAP – representing nurses and other healthcare workers – tweeted: "For more than two years, the health care workers we represent fought daily to keep RIers alive through the worst of the COVID pandemic. A key part of this was ensuring that as many Rhode Islanders as possible were vaccinated.

"We are appalled that @NellieGorbea would source a right-wing anti-vaxxer in her negative ad attacking Governor McKee and we call on her to take the ad down immediately."

The latest WPRI poll showed McKee and Gorbea in a dead heat heading toward the September 13 primary, with McKee holding a razor thin 28% to 25% edge over Gorbea in the crowded race and one out of five voters undecided. The poll was conducted between August 7-10.

The Gorbea ad cites news reports that state and federal investigators have looked – and may still be looking – at some aspect of the controversial education consulting contract, worth up to $5.2 million, the McKee administration gave the ILO Group.

Extracting the National Review article was only one of the changes the Gorbea campaign promised to make to the new ad to fix mistakes.

The initial version ad superimposed a WPRI-TV graphic over a WJAR reporter in a broadcast on the ILO controversy.

The attacks from within Rhode Island's union world come on the day the SEIU – locked in a dispute with McKee over state-paid benefits for the private contractors who provide child day-care in their own homes – endorsed Gorbea for governor.

“Nellie earned our union’s endorsement because she was willing to sit down and listen to the needs of caregivers in hospitals, nursing homes, health centers and home childcare. She heard our concerns about staffing, fair wages and safer workplaces and made the commitment to help us rebuild our workforce after years of the pandemic,” said Kelli Price, a registered Nurse at Women & Infants Hospital.

Asked at the endorsement event at SEIU 1199 headquarters what she had promised the union to do, if elected, Gorbea said only that she promised "that we are going to have an economy that is equitable and just."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Democrat Nellie Gorbea attacks Dan McKee, but right-wing article was a mistake