As primary day nears, Gov. McKee's challengers step up their attacks on him during forum

BRISTOL — With only two weeks to go to primary day – and some Rhode Islanders already voting – the candidates for governor had their slings and arrows aimed at the  incumbent, Dan McKee, on Tuesday night.

Appearing at a forum hosted by The Women's Fund of Rhode Island and the League of Women Voters of Rhode Island, McKee's Democratic challengers needled him for not doing more on multiple fronts.

Housing. Child-care worker benefits. Gun-control. And state-paid insurance coverage for state employees and Medicaid recipients to get abortions.

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Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea

"In 2019, when we codified Roe v. Wade [in state law] .... we had someone in the executive branch, who is now governor – Governor McKee – who thought that that was just a 'gesture'," said McKee's chief rival, Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea.

She cited comments McKee actually made to The Public's Radio in April 2018, amid rising concerns at the State House about the U.S. Supreme Court gutting the nation's landmark abortion rights ruling, Roe v. Wade – as has since happened.

When asked back then about the push for a state-based law to protect abortion rights in Rhode Island, McKee told the station: "I don’t see the Roe v. Wade going to be reversed .... I don’t know if it adds anything, any more protection or not quite frankly."

"I’m not a constitutional lawyer so I don’t even know ... is it more of a gesture ... [or] is it actually going to hold up, I don’t know."

"This is not a 'gesture' people. This is real," Gorbea said Tuesday.

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Gov. Dan McKee

In his own turn, McKee, the former lieutenant governor who catapulted into the state's top job 18 months ago, said: "The secretary doesn't really care too much about the facts."

On this and other issues, he accused Gorbea and his other challengers of persistently giving short-shrift to actions his administration has taken in many arenas, including his directive to state agencies not to cooperate with any investigations launched by other states of Rhode Islanders who help someone get an abortion. 

Ashley Kalus

Republican Ashley Kalus, meanwhile, set herself apart.

On abortion, for example, Kalus, who moved to the state a little more than a year ago to oversee her company's state COVID testing and vaccination contract, said:

"Like the majority of Rhode Islanders, I don't support late-term or public funded abortions. " But she promised, if elected, she would "do nothing" to try to change Rhode Island's 2019 abortion-rights law.

On gun control, while all of the Democrats voiced support for passage of some kind of "assault weapons" ban, Kalus said: Rhode Island already has "some of the strongest gun laws in the country and I don't think additional laws will change the level of violence.

"I think we need to enforce the laws we have."

Regardless of the questions they were actually asked, the candidates veered off. For example:

In a year when state lawmakers – and the governor – pumped an additional $56 million and three rounds of employee bonuses into subsidized child care, Gorbea called for more, without saying exactly how much more.

Gorbea faulted McKee at an earlier forum for not reaching an agreement with the SEIU – which has since endorsed her – over pay-and-benefits for those who take care of other people's children in their own homes.

At this forum, she said the state needs to raise the "standard of living" for these child-care providers to a level that "actually allows them to have a reasonable life."

Luis-Daniel Munoz

In a year when lawmakers and the governor earmarked $250 million for the creation of more housing, health-care activist Luis-Daniel Munoz faulted the governor for diverting a potential tranche of money for affordable housing to a public-financing plan for the proposed new soccer stadium in Pawtucket.

Elaborating on the theme, former Secretary of State Matt Brown faulted McKee for "giving millions of dollars to corporate developers to build luxury apartments in the Superman building that most Rhode Islanders will never be able to afford."

Two of the key pieces in his own housing proposal: cap rent increases at 4% and create an inventory of new houses that cost homeowners no more than 20% of their income.

Helena Foulkes

On housing, former CVS executive Helena Foulkes said the five Democrats sitting side by side in an auditorium at the Roger Williams University School of Law agree, as a matter of policy, on the need to address Rhode Island's housing crunch.

"The big differentiator is: who gets something done about. We've been talking about this issue for the last decade ... [and] Rhode Island has produced the least new housing supply per capita of any state in the country."

She faulted the McKee administration more directly for not getting rental relief dollars out the door more quickly. Among her proposals: allow homes built before 1980 to be turned into multi-unit housing and provide a state match for a federal low-income housing tax credit.

In response, McKee said: "That train has left the station and we are doing a lot of [work] right now that is not being recognized up here on the panel."

He said Foulkes understated by half the $200 million in rent relief dollars his administration distributed, and the $17 million "I put out for utility relief."

Beyond these short-term measures, he cited: the "$250 million in the budget as a first-time and historic investment in housing."

"The work continues," he said of this and other issues raised at the forum.

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This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI Gov. Dan McKee faced attacks from candidates during forum