GoLocalProv Endorsement: Governor
GoLocalProv
GoLocalProv Endorsement: Governor
Democrat Dan McKee, the incumbent, is by all accounts a competent and experienced elected official. He is solid on the issues, but often loses points on finesse. And the main complaint by some people is that he’s “boring.’’
Republican Ashley Kalus, a newcomer to the state from Florida and Illinois, is bright and energetic and, at times, even frenetic in her campaign for governor —recalling the Tasmanian devil in the Bugs Bunny cartoons.
In this past week’s debate, McKee said that he was the most experienced governor in Rhode Island's history in making positive changes in education. That statement is true, and it is perplexing why it has not been the central theme of his campaign.
McKee has been directly responsible for the major improvements in the state's public-education system in the past 15 years. Consider that Mayoral Academies and Achievement First are the best-performing public schools in the state.
The often arrogant Kalus might be the feistiest candidate in recent Rhode Island political history, which can make her both very entertaining and irritating. She often raises important issues but fails to develop them or offer a specific executable action plan. And her business life has included examples of extreme volatility, harshness and an inability to get along with people. It’s hard to see her as managing the thousands of people in state government. (Some of her business activities remain mysterious.)
A "bulldog" approach in business is not disturbing per se. And her salty language is not a disqualifier. We have often been called worse by frustrated and angry public figures than what she –- unfortunately – has called people she’s been fighting with.
McKee has significant accomplishments beyond education. When he assumed the governorship, he developed a strategy that transformed Rhode Island’s COVID-19 vaccination program and, in fact, took Rhode Island from worst to first — and cleaned up the incoherent program left by Gov. Gina Raimondo and Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott. This saved hundreds, if not thousands, of lives.
His strategy in using federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act is sound and may be transformative in Rhode Island’s future. He plans to have the state spend $500 million to build more affordable housing. This would have at least four positive impacts – tending to curb overall housing costs by increasing supply; providing urgently needed safe housing to lower-income Rhode Islanders; creating thousands of construction-related jobs for years to come, and speeding up efforts by the state to train more people to work in the building trades.
Kalus’s assertion that she would build 20,000 new housing units each year is implausible. Rhode Island built about 1,500 units annually. There are an inadequate number of people in the building trades as it is, and lands permitted for new construction are scarce. Kalus implies that she would steamroll the zoning laws of such suburban and rural communities as Barrington, Exeter and Richmond for this new construction. This won’t work.
McKee is understated, and his messaging is often underwhelming. The Trump-style Kalus may put on a lively show, but her claims too often are not based on facts. In style and manner, McKee is the conservative and Kalus the radical.
She said that she wants to cut taxes drastically —a perennial popular promise by many politicians. It’s low-hanging but hollow fruit. On the one hand, she wants big new state programs, on the other hand, to slash taxes. Kalus hasn’t provided examples of direct spending cuts to offset the lack of revenue. Such offsets are essential in responsible Governance 101. It's easy to promise the moon and stars, but you have to know how to get there, not just curry votes.
Four years of Kalus as governor could be quite a spectacle, thus good for expanding our readership, but an alarming choice for Rhode Island’s future.
So GoLocal endorses Dan McKee for governor and hopes that if elected, he’d be laser-focused on building on his education successes to transform Rhode Island’s K-12 learning. It would be among the most meaningful accomplishments by any governor and would transform Rhode Island’s economy.
Every company would want to be in a state full of bright, educated, and motivated citizens. Consider that a major reason that Massachusetts remains such a rich state is the quality of its public education.