McKee, Kalus paint Rhode Island in stark contrasts at Journal, Public's Radio debate

PROVIDENCE – Talking over each other repeatedly amid a fusillade of insults, Gov. Dan McKee and Republican challenger Ashley Kalus battled Thursday night over who is better equipped to fix Rhode Island's problems, from "failing schools" to soaring energy prices.

They faced off in a free-wheeling forum hosted by The Providence Journal and The Public's Radio at Rhode Island College.

At times, it got downright nasty.

And it ended with Kalus' supporters jeering the governor as he began his closing statement until moderator Ian Donnis admonished, "Please show some respect," and Kalus herself said, "You guys, let's let him finish."

Ashley Kalus

To hear Kalus tell it, McKee "represents the failed policies of the past: corruption, insider deals, abuse of power and incompetence." Her example: McKee's tie-breaking vote for up to $60 million in public money for the proposed Pawtucket soccer stadium, which she called "a dirty backroom deal."

"He's just not telling the truth," she interrupted at one point. "Everything is not fine,'' she interjected at another, while McKee was listing the state's high points during the 20 months since he ascended to the governor's office, including the state's lowest unemployment rate in decades.

Gov. Dan McKee

To hear McKee tell it, Kalus' insistence that he has the unilateral power to roll back the double-digit electricity and gas rate increases is just one example of her lack of knowledge of state law and, more generally, how Rhode Island works.

As for her character, he said: she paid herself "more money in a week" from the state COVID testing and vaccination contracts she came to Rhode Island to manage for her husband's company – Doctors Test Centers – "than the average Rhode Islander makes in a year."

"That is the truth: More money in a week than the average Rhode Islander makes in a year," McKee said again of the $500,000 to $1 million Kalus declared in income from Doctors Test Centers on the 2021 financial disclosure statement she filed with the state Ethics Commission.

"I bailed you out on vaccinations," she retorted.

"We were well on our way at that point in time," said McKee, who boasts that the state went from having one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country when he took office in March 2021 to one of the highest.

"You [came in] in March. You hired me in April. The best decision you made," Kalus said to cheers from her often boisterous supporters in the audience.

No middle ground on schools

On education reform, the two talked past each other.

He insisted the state needs to stay the course on education reform – and a long-term testing strategy – not jump all over, as it has done to its detriment before.

"If you were from around here, you would know," he said, with a dig at her relatively recent arrival in Rhode Island. "Ms. Kalus has no experience on this."

She said the state needs to stop end-of-year high-stakes testing and move to what she called "progress-based testing," pay teachers more, and guarantee "school choice" so parents of children in "failing schools" have the option to send them "outside of the county."

Rhode Island does not have county school districts, but McKee let that slide and Kalus did not explain what would happen, and how it would work if, for example, every parent in Providence chose to send their children to high-performing Barrington or East Greenwich schools.

And for the record: Rhode Island effectively ended high-stakes testing as a graduation requirement in 2014.

In his turn, McKee talked about his role as mayor of Cumberland in creating alternate and high-scoring regional charter schools known as mayoral academies, which are "nationally recognized."

Her response: "We now have a national record of trapping children in failing schools ... and why would we trust you now when you failed a generation of children that have been trapped in failing schools?

"And you can't even ensure that children are able to get to school on buses," she said of the RIPTA driver shortage.

More: Kalus says she will release her tax returns ... when McKee releases test scores, subpoenas

Invest in colleges 'like never before'

Talking about what the next governor can and should do to support the state's two colleges and university, McKee said he would continue to invest in our schools "like they've never been invested [in] before because ... we want to make sure the schools that we operate on a state level prepare kids for good paying jobs."

Kalus chose this juncture to hit McKee on his tie-breaking soccer-stadium vote as chairman of the state's economic development agency.

Asked by RIC student journalist Raymond Baccari how she would support higher education, she said, she believes in using public funds for "public goods" such as a public university, but not for private endeavors "like a soccer stadium for a private interest or putting money into building luxury apartments."

Rolling back to this later in the forum, Kalus called the public financing of the soccer stadium "a dirty backroom deal."

McKee, in turn, said Kalus was completely missing the bigger picture.

"Bring it down to the mud if you want," McKee said. "What we are doing in the state of Rhode Island right now is we are investing in the future."

He described the soccer stadium as a piece in a larger plan. Pawtucket "is going to have housing. It's going to have retail. It's going to have a bridge that's going to connect just like the city of Providence. It's going to be good for jobs at the moment and long-term growth around the Pawtucket area," he said.

3 independent candidates mix it up

The three independent candidates for governor participated in a subsequent segment of the forum.

Libertarian Party of Rhode Island candidate Elijah Gizzarelli, of West Warwick, said his  goal isn't to win but instead to garner 5% of the vote, the amount needed to get the party recognized in the state.

The youngest gubernatorial candidate, Zachary Hurwitz, 18, of North Kingstown, took aim at Kalus' status as a Rhode Island newcomer, citing his own 18-year history in Rhode Island, and the in-state lineage of his parents.

Paul Rianna, of Providence, and Gizzarelli both took aim at the media, complaining that they haven't been getting enough attention and weren't invited to previous debates.

All three candidates agreed that McKee should abandon the quest to levy highway tolls on trucks. The state has collected $101 million since 2018 and they were estimated to generate $40 million in yearly revenue.

None had a ready plan for replacing that money.

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

Gizzarelli and Rianna said figuring out what's going on with the state budget is nearly impossible and that the state has a transparency problem. Rianna said the state also has a spending problem.

"Good luck finding it on Google," Gizzarelli said, referring to the state budget.

Hurwitz said maybe the state could save some of the money it will spend on appealing a judge's ruling that the tolls are unconstitutional.

When it came to education, Gizzarelli and Hurwitz said they agreed with school-choice programs; Hurwitz said it was something he benefited from. Gizzarelli said school choice is a way to combat continuing segregation in the school system.

All of the candidates lambasted the state's handling of education during the pandemic. Hurwitz lived through virtual classes and said McKee, who eventually reopened schools closed under his predecessor, Gina Raimondo, failed.

"It's a horrible thing," he said.

"We need to find ways to make it easier for parents and make it less stressful for the child," Rianna said.

Gizzarelli used his closing statement to push for prison abolition for both moral and fiscal reasons, and he lamented the $70,000 a year that he said the state spends per year per prisoner and how the current system rips people out of their families, communities and society.

"The drug war must end," he said.

Watch the candidates for RI governor forum:

Election 2022 Updates: The latest news in the highest-profile races in Rhode Island

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: McKee. Kalus trade jabs during Providence Journal, Public's Radio forum