Fourteen Rhode Island municipalities are planning to sue the state over laws designed to make it easier to build housing

Charlestown is NOT suing, at least for now

Steve Ahlquist

Charlestown Town Council gave its OK to converting
this derelict motel on Route 1 into affordable housing.
The ONLY dissenting vote was Charlestown Citizens Alliance
(CCA) rep Bonnita Van Slyke

Over the last three years or so, under the leadership of former Speaker of the House K. Joseph Shekarchi, the Rhode Island General Assembly passed legislation designed to make it easier for developers to build housing. 

Given the massive shortage of available housing, rapidly escalating rents that harm low- and middle-income families, and a more than 400% increase in homelessness across the state, these measures, though not sufficient, are a necessary stab at mitigating Rhode Island’s housing apocalypse.

The legislation, among other things, reformed the comprehensive permitting process to better enable affordable housing development and streamlined zoning and land-use regulations. These aren’t exactly the sexiest bills; we’re talking about things like density bonuses for building near transit, adding homes in commercial lots, or infilling non-conforming lots (think weird-shaped lots that require some creative designs).

The goal of these reforms is to reduce costs and accelerate the construction of new homes. Given that Rhode Island has long been last in the nation for building homes (on a per capita basis, not because of our size), and it is estimated that the state needs to build between 15,000 and 24,000 new units to get the situation under control, it is right to ask if the state is doing enough. That said, permitting for new housing is trending up, as shown in the 2025 Integrated Housing Report from the Rhode Island Executive Office of Housing, but at our current rate of development, we are over a decade from seeing the housing market stabilize.

As Rhode Island families suffer, you’d think that local municipalities would be all in on these reforms, but of course, that’s not the case. Instead, around 14 municipalities, including Portsmouth, Tiverton, Hopkinton, Burrillville, Bristol, Smithfield, West Greenwich, East Greenwich, Lincoln, Middletown, Charlestown, and Westerly, have signed onto a Joint Municipal Statement¹ opposing the state’s efforts. The statement appears to be the brainchild of Larry Fitzmorris, President of the conservative Portsmouth Concerned Citizens, and Mark Brady, former Narragansett Planning Board Chair.

EDITOR'S NOTE: When I saw that Steve listed Charlestown among the towns planning to sue, I asked Charlestown Council President if this was true. It's not. This is what Deb said:

"My concern is the one size fits all approach to solve the housing problem.  Charlestown relies on private wells and septic systems which makes our situation different from those cities and town with public water and sewer.  Charlestown did not vote to join the lawsuit at this time. Based on the information presented at the May Town Council meeting,  it does not seem as though this lawsuit has a likely chance of success.  The Town Council will revisit the matter once new information is available."

- Will Collette

Newest poll shows Helena Foulkes kicking Dan McKee's butt by 20%

59% Say Rhode Island Is Headed in the Wrong Direction

A new Emerson College Polling/WPRI-TV 12 News survey of Rhode Island finds incumbent Governor Dan McKee trailing businesswoman Helena Foulkes in the Democratic primary by 20 points, 20% to 40%. Thirty-seven percent are undecided ahead of the September primary. 

“Registered Democrats support Foulkes over Governor McKee by a 12-point margin, 37% to 25%, while independent voters break more significantly for Foulkes by 32 points, 45% to 13%,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said. 

McKee is viewed unfavorably by 60% of Rhode Island voters, while 21% have a favorable view of him. Among Democratic Primary voters, 29% have a favorable view of McKee and 50% an unfavorable view. Foulkes’ favorability is split: 27% have a favorable view of her and 29% have an unfavorable view of her. Among Democratic Primary voters, 35% have a favorable view of Foulkes and 23% an unfavorable view. 

Environmental Council of RI seeks to protect Rhode Island's climate goals, expand conservation funding, decarbonize buildings, and save RIPTA

ECRI pushes green agenda

Steve Ahlquist 

The Environment Council of Rhode Island (ECRI), a coalition of more than 60 organizations “advocating for policies to protect and enhance the environment for all Rhode Islanders,” introduced its 2026 legislative priorities at a State House event on Tuesday. “These priorities were chosen by the membership of ECRI through a month-long democratic process and represent the diversity of the environmental community in Rhode Island,” said ECRI Executive Director Jordan Miller at the opening of the event.

Here’s the video: The Environment Council of RI 2026 Lobby Day; April 14, 2026

This year, ECRI announced four legislative priorities for the 2026 legislative session. As described by ECRI Vice President Tina Munter, “[T]hese priorities, in no particular order, include urging our legislators to oppose the rollback of state clean energy and energy efficiency programs that have been proposed in the governor’s FY2027 budget, the Green Bond plus crucial additional funding for conservation and open space measures, the Save RIPTA legislative package as put together by the Save RIPTA Coalition, and building decarbonization legislation, both building benchmarking and reporting and building performance standards.”

Wood River Health kicks off 50th anniversary celebration

Major source of health care for Charlestown 

House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi Accepts Health
Center Champion Award. From L to R: Rep Megan Cotter;
Rep Tina Spears; Alison Croke; House Speaker K. Joseph
Shekarchi; Rep Samuel Azzinaro

On Friday, March 20, 2026, Wood River Health kicked off its 50th Anniversary by hosting an Anniversary Founders Day & Awards Ceremony at the Ocean House. The event brought together an inspiring assembly of community leaders and advocates to mark a major milestone: providing high‑quality, compassionate and affordable health care in the community for 50 years.

 

President and CEO Alison L. Croke opened the program by reflecting on the significance of the day and providing an overview of the origin of federally qualified health centers. With roots in the civil rights movement and the War on Poverty, there are now about 1,400 community health centers delivering care to more than 33 million people throughout the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories. Wood River Health is one of eight federally qualified health centers in the state, which serve one out of every five Rhode Islanders. 

Croke shared that since its founding in 1976, Wood River Health has grown from a modest clinic on Mechanic Street into a multi-site health center providing primary care, dental care, behavioral health and vital support services to 12,000 patients. She recognized the health center’s ongoing commitment to addressing health care access barriers including transportation, food insecurity and housing instability. Croke expressed gratitude to the dedicated board members, staff, providers and community partners who have worked diligently to forward the organization’s mission.

House Speaker continues to push for more affordable housing in Rhode Island

Speaker Shekarchi announces his sixth package of housing bills

Steve Ahlquist

Rhode Island House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi announced his 2026 housing legislation package, his sixth since becoming Speaker in 2021. You can watch the video here.

“Our advocacy is working: Rhode Island is becoming a model for housing policy in other states,” said Speaker Shekarchi. “We’ve passed more than 60 new housing laws that are having real results. The creation of a new land-use court calendar reduced the backlog of pending cases by nearly half within its first year of implementation. It’s no coincidence that reducing red tape has led to a significant rise in building permits. In 2023, we had a 70% rise in building permits, the most in a single year since the Great Recession.

“But building takes time, and we are still trying to play catch-up for all the years that Rhode Island was dead last in the country for new housing starts. While Rhode Island remains a relatively affordable option for people moving here from other states, our own residents are too often priced out of the neighborhoods they grew up in. The sad reality is that there is a direct correlation between rising housing costs and increased homelessness. This winter alone, at least four people froze to death because they were unhoused. That is completely unacceptable. Until all of our neighbors have a safe place to sleep at night, this work must continue.”

The announced bills are:

• Infill subdivision for housing: Upon passage, this legislation would allow property owners in areas with water and sewer capacity to subdivide property for single-family residential development under certain limited conditions and requirements.
• Parking maximums: Upon passage, this legislation would establish maximum parking requirements for multifamily housing in areas accessible by public transit. It follows initiatives in other states in reducing parking requirements.
• Homeless Bill of Rights: Upon passage, this legislation would add a requirement to Rhode Island’s existing Homeless Bill of Rights that at least a 15-day notice be given to individuals/families affected by the disbanding of an encampment, subject to emergency and safety exceptions.
• SAFE bill: Upon passage, this legislation would enable cities and towns to allow Supportive and Functional Emergency units (“SAFE Units,” such as Pallet shelters) to operate temporarily during an emergency declaration. This legislation would enable cities and towns to respond quickly in the event of severe weather and/or natural or manufactured disasters.
• Single staircase: Upon passage, this legislation would amend the state building code to allow single-staircase construction in residential buildings up to four floors and 16 units, but the construction would remain subject to all applicable fire code requirements.
• Technical amendments: This legislation is based on feedback received by the Land Use Commission and various stakeholders, including local municipalities, developers, planners, and other advocates. The legislation seeks to clarify and amend the processes, terms, references, and requirements outlined in the Zoning Enabling Act, Low- and Moderate-Income Housing Act, and Subdivision Act.
• Vacant land/properties: Upon passage, this legislation would allow the adaptive reuse of state-owned vacant buildings by right. The legislation would enable the redevelopment/adaptive reuse of vacant municipal buildings into housing and also amend the redevelopment program to convert municipal schools.
• Commission to study and review the Condominium Act: Upon passage, this legislation would establish a commission to study potential modernization of and updates to the state’s Condominium Act, which has not been reviewed or amended in more than a decade.
• Affordable housing tax assessment and valuation: Upon passage, this legislation would impose limits on tax rates for new construction of residential rental units that include certain percentages of affordable housing in either new construction or adaptive reuse projects.

The legislation has also been influenced by two housing commissions established by Speaker Shekarchi. Some of the announced legislation would amend existing housing laws based on feedback from these commissions.

Rhode Island Republicans applaud McGee's renewal energy roll-back; others DO NOT

Environmental groups and labor respond to Governor McKee's push against renewable energy and energy efficiency

Steve Ahlquist

Environmental advocates, state legislators, and labor union leaders spoke out at a State House press conference to oppose Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee’s budget proposals and executive order on clean energy. The event was sponsored by Acadia Center, Climate Action Rhode Island, and the Green Energy Consumers Alliance.

“Slowing the transition to clean local renewables is a shortsighted plan that doesn’t address the long-term energy affordability and undermines Rhode Island’s economic competitiveness and clean energy future,” said Emily Howe of Clean Water Action. “The investments we make today in energy efficiency make homes more comfortable, use less energy, and reduce energy demand, resulting in lower costs for all rate payers.”

Acadia Center’s Emily Koo put it bluntly: “Cutting clean energy doesn’t protect Rhode Island rate payers. It protects an outdated energy system and keeps us dependent on dirty, expensive fossil fuels. These so-called state mandates, like our renewable energy standard and the charges that support renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, help reduce the largest and fastest-growing component of your bill: supply and delivery costs. It’s a glaring omission to report clean energy costs while ignoring all cost savings, one of the primary reasons for undertaking the energy transition in the first place. Clean energy isn’t at odds with affordability. It’s essential to it.”

The Governor’s bad policy decisions around renewable energy and energy efficiency programs did please at least one group in Rhode Island: Senate Republicans.

“Senate Republicans warned these mandates were unaffordable, we debated the adverse effects on ratepayers on the Senate floor, we have submitted legislation to increase transparency on utility bills, and to fully repeal costly mandates,” said Senate Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz. “It is good to know the Governor supports our advocacy and, at long last, realizes the detrimental effect of the policies he has historically championed. Now is the time to put partisanship aside and correct the failed policies that have given rise to some of the highest electricity rates in the country.”

“Rhode Island’s mandates on renewable energy rely heavily on taxpayer-funded subsidies. Those costs are borne by ratepayers across all socio-economic backgrounds and present significant financial challenges for businesses and the economy,” said Senate Minority Whip Gordon Rogers. “If the governor’s efforts to solve problems he helped create do not include a full repeal of mandates and a significant reduction in taxpayer subsidies, then he is gaslighting the people of Rhode Island – it’s just too bad that gaslighting can’t be used to heat and power our homes.”

Environmental Council of Rhode Island calls on Speaker Shekarchi to push back on the anti-conservation and renewable energy narrative

RI House Speaker Joe Shekarchi encourages ECRI to keep up the fight

Steve Ahlquist

At the Environmental Council of Rhode Island (ECRI)’s legislative coffee hour, held annually in the State House Library, Speaker of the House K. Joseph Shekarchi began his remarks with a story about how Representative David Bennett threatened to resign as Chair of the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee. Representative Bennett was resigning, said the Speaker, because he had never passed a significant bill out of his committee. The Speaker assured Bennett that they would “consider every bill on its merits,” and the first bill passed was the historic 2021 Act on Climate.

It wasn’t easy, said the Speaker. The bill was passed during COVID, and everyone was masked. The House was meeting in the Veterans’ Auditorium, and, instead of voting machines, legislators were using iPads.

“It was a very long and lengthy debate, and our iPads were running out of battery life,” said the Speaker. “They wanted to postpone the hearing, and you could see the opposition getting a little bit of momentum.”

The Speaker decided to call the question, which he rarely does, preferring to allow the debate to run its course. Calling the question stops debate and forces a vote. Act on Climate passed.

“That opened up the floodgates to a lot of good legislation, and we’ll continue,” said the Speaker to the ECRI members, supporters, and legislators packed into the library.

“I know things are not satisfactory right now,” continued Speaker Sheakarchi. “Federally, things that are happening are hurting a lot of our environmental initiatives, but we can’t get lost in that. We must remember the progress we have made and continue to make. You need to be active and involved, and push back against the narrative that these programs are the cause of the energy affordability crisis. That is not true.”

The Speaker continued:

“There’s nothing more powerful than the truth. When you hear from people with credibility like Sue Anderbois and Terry Gray, that makes all the difference in the world. We are being bombarded: receiving several hundred emails a day from the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity.¹ It’s a form email. Some of you may have seen them. If not, I’ll be happy to send you a copy. It’s the same narrative: Get rid of all of the conservation programs and get rid of all of the renewable energy programs. There will be a rally at the State House in two weeks. I expect everybody in this room to be at that rally. We need to be heard.

“I can confirm that my colleagues and I care about the environment, and we’ve made progress. Progress doesn’t happen overnight. It happens in stages, as with the Bottle Bill. We did the first part of that. Not an easy bill. Everybody wants a Bottle Bill. I want a bottle bill. How are we going to implement it? Who is it going to cost? Where are these redemption centers going to be? Who’s going to do redemption? We have committed to delivering those answers within less than a year, and we’ll continue with step two, but step one was important. We needed that real data from the people who are actually going to do the redemptions, where they’re going to go, and how we’re going to make it work.

“Don’t give up hope because it’s not instant. I am not a young person, but some young people want instant success, instant answers, and instant results. Legislation is not instant. Big, effective change takes time, and I have a passion for not doing anything for the sake of doing it. I have a passion for doing it when it’s right and getting it right the first time, as best we can. We’re not perfect. No legislation is perfect, and if we waited for perfect, we’d never get anything done. We don’t want perfect to be the enemy of good, and we’ve passed a lot of good legislation. I stand behind that. I run on that. I’m proud of that.

Big drama over Big Pharma: McKee still linking Foulkes to opioid epidemic

Behind in the polls, saddled with the Washington Bridge, McKee looks for an issue he can use

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee continues to attack 2026 Democratic rival Helena Buonanno Foulkes for her personal and professional ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

The latest jab from the McKee campaign came in the midst of a Monday luncheon fundraiser for Foulkes, hosted by her uncle, former U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd.

The private luncheon for Foulkes was held at The University Club on the East Side of Providence, with tickets for attendees ranging from $500 to $2,000 — the maximum annual contribution to political candidates under state law. Dodd was listed on the event flyer as a special guest, alongside dozens of other prominent names in state politics and business circles who are backing Foulkes in the 2026 Democratic gubernatorial primary. 

A fixture in Democratic politics, Dodd represented his home state of Connecticut for two decades in the U.S. Senate, until 2011, and is the partial namesake of the famous Wall Street reform law, the “Dodd-Frank Act.” 

But McKee’s campaign offers a different descriptor of Dodd: “Purdue Pharma ally.”

And the governor’s campaign says Dodd’s involvement in a fundraiser for Foulkes is further proof of her ties to the “very insiders who enabled Purdue’s rise.”

Rep. Spears holds community meeting, December 13

 

DECEMBER 2025

You're Invited!

Saturday, December 13 1 PM – 3 PM

Please join us for a Community Conversation with State Representative Tina Spears and special guest, Speaker of the House Joe Shekarchi

Saturday, December 13 1 PM – 3 PM Cross mIlls Public Library, 4417 Old Post Road, Charlestown, RI

Tina will share updates on what she has accomplished this year and give a preview of the key issues ahead in 2026… more importantly, she and Speaker Shekarchi want to hear from YOU.   This is an opportunity to discuss the issues that matter most to our community, ask questions, and share your thoughts on priorities for the upcoming legislative session.   Your voice is essential in shaping our work—hope to see you there!   Light refreshments will be provided

If you'd like to donate to Tina's re-eelction campaign, please make personal checks payable to: The Friends of Tina Spears 82 Hillside Drive Charlestown, RI 02813   Or click HERE to contribute online or use the QR code   DONATE

How to win elections and influence the State House? Right-wing League of RI Businesses has a plan.

Pro-gun business PAC targets local Dems Tina Spears and Alana DiMario

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

The League of RI Businesses organized a fundraiser wine
tasting at Gasbarro’s Wines on Federal Hill in
Providence on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025.
From left, John Loughlin, a Republican candidate for
lieutenant governor; Laura Turini, a Democratic
candidate for state Senate District 35;
David Levesque, co-founder of The League;
Leah Boisclair, a Democratic candidate for
House District 36; and Mark Mesrobian, a
Democratic candidate for Senate District 36.
(Photo by Michael Salerno/Rhode Island Current)

When a group of gun rights advocates piled into House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi’s State House office to rail against a proposed assault-style weapons ban last spring, Shekarchi gave them some advice: Organize. Get involved earlier. Don’t come in at the last minute and complain.

David Levesque took the message to heart.

“If it wasn’t for the Speaker sitting in that conference room six or seven months ago, telling us ‘you need to be organized, you need to do this for the long fight,’ we probably wouldn’t be here now,” Levesque, a Narragansett resident and owner of Brewed Awakenings coffee houses, said in a recent interview.

Levesque got to work. He revived a dormant political action committee started during the pandemic to “fight against all the ridiculous rules and laws.” He made a website, registered the 501(c)4 with the Rhode Island Department of State, held fundraisers, and started to recruit 2026 state legislative candidates. 

The pièce de résistance: a string of 40 political action committees — one statewide and one for every city and town in Rhode Island — allowing The League of RI Businesses to circumvent the $2,000-per-candidate annual campaign donation limit set by state law. 

“With 40 PACs aligned in mission, The League has the capacity to direct up to $1 million annually toward supporting new, common-sense candidates and challenging extremist incumbents,” the business group boasted in a Nov. 17 press release. 

New UNH poll shows McKee has only 11% support for his re-election bid

McKee's only hope seems to be the 42% of Democratic voters who remain undecided

By Alexander Castro, Rhode Island Current

Nearly half of likely Democratic voters still aren’t sure who they’d choose in Rhode Island’s 2026 gubernatorial primary, according to the latest Ocean State Poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. 

A sizable 42% of Democratic primary voters considered themselves “undecided” in the survey released Monday. But former CVS executive Helena Buonanno Foulkes holds a slight, early lead in a hypothetical Democratic primary with Rhode Island House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi and incumbent Gov. Dan McKee. 

Of the 359 respondents who are likely to hit the polls in the Democratic primary slated for September 2026, 29% said they would back Foulkes.

Shekarchi, who has not publicly committed to a run but has expressed interest in media interviews, secured 13% of support from the surveyed respondents.

Limping along with slightly lower polling numbers is McKee with support from only 11% of primary voters — his latest dismal showing in a string of polls, especially in concert with the poll’s other numbers for McKee, which demonstrate a broad and more diffuse dissatisfaction with his leadership both within and across party lines.

Speaker Shekarchi appoints Rep. McEntee as chairwoman of House Judiciary Committee

McEntee replaces Bob Craven after Craven’s aborted AG campaign

Rep. Carol Hagan McEntee (D-Dist. 33, South Kingstown, Narragansett) has been appointed by Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi as the new chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee. She has served as the committee’s first vice-chair for the last several legislative sessions.

“It is a tremendous honor to be appointed as the new Judiciary chair, and I thank Speaker Shekarchi and my House colleagues for having faith in me to lead this important committee. At a time when countless rights are being trampled upon and disregarded, the House Judiciary Committee stands as a crucial line of defense for all Rhode Islanders and that will not change. I look forward to working with other members of the committee and the entire House of Representatives to ensure that the people of Rhode Island are cared for, supported and protected,” said Chairwoman McEntee (D-Dist. 33, South Kingstown, Narragansett).

EDITOR'S NOTE: South Kingstown representative Carol Hagen McEntee replaces long-time Charlestown assistant solicitor Bob Craven after Bob's four-day long disastrous campaign for Attorney General revealed issues about his past legal problems that made his candidacy untenable. In addition to ending his campaign, Bob also resigned as Judiciary Committee chair, the position McEntee is filling, and declared he is not seeking re-election.  - Will Collette

New wave of state investment in Rhode Island housing

Rhode Island announces first wave of housing bond investments

Steve Ahlquist

Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee and Speaker of the House K. Joseph Shekarchi announced the first wave of programs supported by Rhode Island’s historic $120 million housing bond approved by voters. “Rhode Island isn’t just talking about the housing crisis; we’re building our way out of it,” said Governor McKee.

“It’s not every day that I’m in this room at a press conference that I’m actually going to say something directly to the media, which is a heartfelt thank you. Thank you, Steve Alquist and Chris Shea, for talking about housing and highlighting it,” said Speaker of the House Shekarchi (Democrat, District 23, Warwick). “We passed in Rhode Island, by an overwhelming majority, the single largest housing bond in the state’s history. The governor proposed a hundred million dollars. We, the General Assembly ... were able to increase that by about 20%. The single largest housing bond was passed overwhelmingly.

“Rhode Island is in the midst of a housing and homelessness crisis, and the best remedy is to increase housing production,” continued the Speaker. “In recent years, the General Assembly has taken bold steps to address our housing shortage, enacting nearly 60 new laws to streamline development, cut red tape, and spur development. This bond - which my General Assembly colleagues and I are proud to have strongly supported - is the critical next step to putting those laws into action, accelerating construction, and delivering real results for Rhode Island families.”

Here’s the video: RI announces first round of housing bond money allocations

Thanks to Charlestown Citizens Alliance leader Ruth Platner, Charlestown housing is still unaffordable

Renters face housing crunch in latest HousingWorks RI report

By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current

Since taking control of the Charlestown Planning Commission, CCA founder and de facto leader Ruth Platner has made it almost impossible to build family housing

Last year marked the first time no community in Rhode Island was affordable to a household earning under $100,000 a year. And now this year is the first time the median renter cannot afford an average two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the state.

That’s one of the many bleak takeaways of the latest housing factbook released Friday by HousingWorks RI, the housing policy research group based at Roger Williams University. This year’s report determined that the lowest income to affordably rent the average-priced two-bedroom apartment, including utilities, is $60,320.

The average renter in Rhode Island earned an annual income of $48,434 in 2024, according to the 84-page report.

Simply put, “Rhode Islanders continued to face a challenging housing market,” the factbook says.

Among the many major factors leading to the smallest state’s affordability crisis: There just aren’t enough places for people to live. 

A healthy rental market typically has a vacancy rate of 5 to 8%, according to the factbook. Data from the Federal Reserve notes a statewide rental vacancy rate of 2.6% in 2024. 

How low can McKee go?

Very high "unfavorable" numbers

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

Helena Foulkes has a big lead but still has a name recognition
problem McKee perhaps has TOO MUCH name recognition

Gov. Dan McKee can’t score a win with Rhode Islanders, with seven in 10 people disapproving of his job performance and almost as many saying he does not deserve to be reelected, according to results of a University of New Hampshire (UNH) survey published Monday.

The Ocean State Poll out of the UNH Survey Center surveyed 737 residents, including 666 likely general election voters. It comes two weeks after a separate University of Rhode Island survey showed equally unfavorable ratings for the incumbent Democratic governor. The UNH survey also suggests more Democratic voters prefer McKee’s Democratic rival, former CVS executive Helena Buonanno Foulkes, over him in a hypothetical 2026 gubernatorial primary, though most voters remain undecided.

The margin of error in the survey overall was 3.6%, though questions specific to Democratic primary voters have a 5.9% margin of error.

McKee faces backlash for keeping Washington Bridge forensic audit secret for over a year

McKee fails Watergate test - that the cover-up is worse than the crime

By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current

Corrosion and section loss are visible in this inspection photo of exterior tie-down rod for cantilever beam F at Pier 6 on the Washington Bridge, taken July 21, 2023. (Photo from Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc. report)

Legislative leaders on Monday called for yet another oversight hearing on the handling of the 2023 closure of the westbound Washington Bridge, three days after the release of a long-awaited forensic audit of what led to its failure was made public.

The audit report commissioned by Gov. Dan McKee had been kept under wraps by the state for more than a year after he first promised to make it public during a March 2024 press conference when he announced the bridge would need to be rebuilt.

Then on Friday evening, the 64-page report by Illinois-based engineering firm Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc. (WJE) was posted online by Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha’s office, which is actively suing 13 of the vendors contracted to conduct maintenance. Contents of the analysis were first reported by WPRI-12. 

House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi and Senate President Valarie Lawson said late Monday afternoon they were “deeply troubled by the findings” of the audit, which identified decades worth of failures by the state and its contractors responsible for maintaining the westbound span of Interstate 195.

URI poll shows 93% of Rhode Islanders believe housing costs are a problem

Survey finds health care, housing, roads and bridges among top concerns

Dawn Bergantino 

A new public opinion poll from researchers at the University of Rhode Island finds that 93% of Rhode Islanders believe that housing costs are a problem; yet, when it comes to solutions, opinions are divided. The poll is the third from the Rhode Island Survey Initiative, led by URI’s Harrington School of Communication and Media; Social Science Institute for Research, Education, and Policy; and Department of Political Science.

The annual poll surveyed a representative sample of 500 Rhode Island residents ages 18 and older between Aug. 1 and Aug. 18, 2025. Administered by the polling firm YouGov via the internet, survey participants were chosen from YouGov’s opt-in survey panel of Rhode Island residents. The margin of error for the poll is +/- 6.01%.

“In addition to core questions, each year the Rhode Island Survey Initiative selects one major theme for in-depth study,” said Ashlea Rundlett, URI associate professor of political science, who was a member of the research team. “Given rising costs and the lack of affordable and available housing across the state for people at many income levels, this year we felt it pertinent to explore Rhode Islanders’ opinions on the topic.”