McKee and Kalus clashed in first debate of general election. Here's what they said.

Dan McKee and Ashley Kalus agreed on one thing in the first televised debate of the Rhode Island general election campaign for governor: the other doesn't know what they are doing.

But on almost everything else -- education, energy, tolls, gun control and abortion -- Democratic incumbent McKee and Republican challenger Kalus saw things differently in a contentious debate on WPRI-TV.

The war of words began with the candidates' response to big rate hikes for electricity and natural gas this winter.

Kalus has called on McKee to invoke emergency powers to roll back rate hikes for electricity and natural gas this winter and then suspend taxes on electricity.

Utility costs

"You don't understand how the rates are structured, Ms. Kalus, and that's one of the problems you have," McKee said. "You don't understand the process and the way it works."

"With all due respect, governor, I don't think you understand your powers that were given to you by the General Assembly 40 years ago," Kalus fired back. "As governor you have an obligation to help people who are choosing between eating and heating and do it right now.

"I am taking it as you are not aware of your ability to do so.... Do you understand that you have this ability and just did nothing?"

McKee said he has put $5.3 million into rate relief and plans to do more once the General Assembly returns for business in January.

"Do you understand we are providing millions of dollars in relief for ratepayers right now?" he said.

Kalus, who trailed McKee by double digits in the most recent poll, was in attack mode all night.

She painted McKee as an "incompetent" and "out of touch" governor, who sought double-digit raises for his cabinet while electricity prices were soaring.

He accused her of running out of spite for losing a state contract.

COVID Contract

"What do we know about Ashley Kalus? Not much," McKee said. "Let me give you a little run-down ... She flew in here about a year ago, maybe from Illinois where she has a house, or from Florida where she votes.

"She flew in for a major, multimillion dollar contract. She lost the contract. She registered to vote and she declared for governor.

"It's retaliation," McKee alleged. "She could not take the fact that she was told that she was not doing a good job and that we needed to remove her from the service."

"That's not true," Kalus responded. "He's not tethered to the truth."

Election 2022 Updates: Follow along with the latest in Rhode Island political news

She said she only found out about complaints about her company's performance - "which quite frankly are insulting to the healthcare workers that I employed" -  when she read about them in the newspaper "after I was running for governor."

She asserted that one of the two contracts that Doctors Test Centers had with the state - the vaccination contract - was "renewed three times," not cut short.

"I am new in politics and I thought that together we helped make Rhode Island... the most vaccinated state in the country. That is something we could have joint agreement on, but you turned... something that should have been a success into a hit."

Abortion

At another point, they jousted over McKee's renewed promise to seek state-funding - for abortion coverage for state workers and Medicaid recipients, and Kalus' vow to veto a state budget that includes state dollars for abortions.

"What's next?" he said of national Republican efforts to ban abortion. "I am pro-choice. She is no-choice. She doesn't have confidence in the women [who] live in the state of Rhode Island ... to determine how they want to deal with their lives and their bodies."

In response, Kalus said: "I am personally pro-life ...The idea the I can't have a personal opinion as a woman and do my job as governor, which is to uphold the law of the state is quite frankly, not okay ... Quite frankly that smacks of sexism."

Truck tolls

They sparred over the state's truck tolls system, which a federal judge ruled unconstitutional last month.

McKee, for the first time, said he intends to appeal the ruling, a move Kalus attacked.

"I would not appeal that decision. We know that the law was unconstitutional. So instead of not doing it [we] spent $8 million on a politically connected law firm to fight that appeal which we lost. He is delaying the inevitability that he wants to toll all trucks and cars."

More: Judge orders halt to Rhode Island truck tolls, rules system is unconstitutional

Biden vs. Trump, assault weapons, and early voting

Asked who should run for president in 2024, McKee said he fully supports Joe Biden, should the incumbent choose to run again.

Kalus refused to say whether she would vote for Donald Trump if he runs for president in 2024.

"The questions about Trump are a distraction. I am focused on this election and this president," Kalus said. "I am not going to answer a hypotheticals about a race that may or may not happen."

In the lightning round of questions, McKee said he supports an ban on assault weapons. Kalus opposes a ban.

On early voting, Kalus said the current early voting period is too long. McKee thinks it is about the right length.

They did agree on a few areas, including that recreational marijuana sales should be legal and that moving the state's September primary to June is a good idea.

Kalus correctly pegged the size of the state budget at $13.6 billion.

McKee knew the minimum wage is $12.25 per hour, while Kalus was off by 50 cents, saying $12.75 an hour.

More: Gov. Dan McKee wins endorsements from gun-control advocates, touts recent legislation

Housing

Both Kalus and Mckee said they want to build more homes in the state.

Kalus promised to build 10,000 units a year, which McKee said was "impossible."

But both candidates rejected passing any law, like recent legislation in California, that would force reluctant municipalities to allow more homes to be built in their borders.

FBI investigation

The two also exchanged jabs over the education consulting contract worth up to $5.2 million that the McKee administration awarded to the newly formed ILO Group, soon after he catapulted to the governor's office mid-term.

Kalus mentioned the investigation by state and federal authorities multiple times, while McKee said he has no regrets about turning to people he felt he could trust "on making sure we got kids back to school safely."

He said the now cancelled contract is a non-issue on the campaign trail, as he meets people who "know, that as governor, I came into a difficult, unmanageable situation. A health emergency where we were the lowest vaccinated in the country."

And "no one has contacted me about this issue that is reviewing the situation."

Kalus response: "If he is so convinced that he is innocent then I would ask that you release the subpoena into your administration." As an aside, she added; "The subject of an investigation is often the last to know."

"I think that's unfortunate,"  Atty. Gen. Peter Neronha told The Journal last week, when asked what TV viewers should assume from the spate of ads labeling McKee "corrupt" because state and federal authorities are looking into the educational consulting contract the McKee administration gave the ILO Group.

Neronha announced in October 2021 that his office intended to look into the contract, in light of news reports raising questions about why it went to a newly formed company with ties to a McKee political ally that was the higher of two bidders.

"Sometimes that takes some time," Neronha said last week. "I've said it before. No one should draw conclusions about anything. In fact, just the opposite. They should presume that nothing was done wrong until there's evidence that there was."

"We've done a lot of investigations over the years that have not resulted in any charges. We've done others that have. Until that moment in time arrives, I don't think anyone should draw any conclusions."

Modeling Massachusetts: GOP governor candidate Ashley Kalus rolls out education plan

Education

In his turn during the WPRI debate, McKee asked Kalus several times why she is sending her own children to a private school in Newport.

Her answer: "What I understand is you are trapping children in failing schools...and the reality is, the quality of your education is right now, in Rhode Island,  determined by your ZIP code."

Without explaining why she chose not to send her own sons to a public school in Newport, she said parents of children in failing schools should be given a "school choice."

Political Scene: 3 independent candidates for RI governor reach for the brass ring

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Primary spending: Helena Foulkes ran one of the priciest primary campaigns in RI history in her bid for governor

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI first general election debate: Gov. Dan McKee and Ashley Kalus spar