Providence Crime & the Mayoral Race

Tim, we were talking about this off camera.

This is big.

McKee did everything he could do to court labor, including the charter school situation that didn't pay off for him.

Yeah, the NEA and AFT, the two powerful teachers unions, are under the AFL-CIO umbrella, and he made that play to try and secure this endorsement.

This is a win for Helena Folks, and we now have an underdog incumbent in the race for governor.

And this isn't just about endorsements and all of that.

Those are important, of course, in the political world.

The question was always, I think, for us is – What will the labor bring to the table? So it's not just about endorsing them.

Are they going to support the governor in this case? And it's very clear they're not, even if they had endorsed the incumbent governor, which, by the way, in the.

Democratic primary.

I can't remember a time the AFL-CIO didn't do that.

When it was an open seat, I think Gina Raimondo's first run, there was no AFL-CIO endorsement.

They decided to stay on the sidelines.

But to not endorse the incumbent governor is a real headline.

The other question was, what kind of money were they going to bring for Dan McKee? And it's clear now the answer is zero.

And so there's a lot of question about how much runway does Dan McKee have? How much more spending can he do? You have Helena Folks, who is outspending Dan McKee, I think at last check, three to one in television ads.

And you are not going to see the union step up and help him financially at this point.

Right.

They have the type of money where they could send out mailers.

They could run a TV ad, do all kinds of things like that.

And now that's not happening.

And to be clear, it was never a question about are they going to endorse folks or McKee? We knew they wouldn't endorse folks.

It was would they endorse McKee or would they stay out of it? And they stayed out of it.

And so the individual unions that are within the umbrella of the AFL-CIO technically could still endorse, I think, one of them.

Firefighters will.

Tim, we were talking about this off camera.

This is big.

McKee did everything he could do to court labor, including the charter school situation that didn't pay off for him.

Yeah, the NEA and AFT, the two powerful teachers unions, are under the AFL-CIO umbrella, and he made that play to try and secure this endorsement.

This is a win for Helena Folks, and we now have an underdog incumbent in the race for governor.

And this isn't just about endorsements and all of that.

Those are important, of course, in the political world.

The question was always, I think, for us is – What will the labor bring to the table? So it's not just about endorsing them.

Are they going to support the governor in this case? And it's very clear they're not, even if they had endorsed the incumbent governor, which, by the way, in the.

Democratic primary.

I can't remember a time the AFL-CIO didn't do that.

When it was an open seat, I think Gina Raimondo's first run, there was no AFL-CIO endorsement.

They decided to stay on the sidelines.

But to not endorse the incumbent governor is a real headline.

The other question was, what kind of money were they going to bring for Dan McKee? And it's clear now the answer is zero.

And so there's a lot of question about how much runway does Dan McKee have? How much more spending can he do? You have Helena Folks, who is outspending Dan McKee, I think at last check, three to one in television ads.

And you are not going to see the union step up and help him financially at this point.

Right.

They have the type of money where they could send out mailers.

They could run a TV ad, do all kinds of things like that.

And now that's not happening.

And to be clear, it was never a question about are they going to endorse folks or McKee? We knew they wouldn't endorse folks.

It was would they endorse McKee or would they stay out of it? And they stayed out of it.

And so the individual unions that are within the umbrella of the AFL-CIO technically could still endorse, I think, one of them.

Firefighters will.