Ken Block is Running for Governor

Bill Bartholomew welcomes independent Rhode Island gubernatorial candidate Ken Block.

Key topics:

• Ken Block's background in software engineering and political activism

• His previous efforts to create a centrist political party and advocacy for good government

• The surprising and personal journey leading to his gubernatorial run

• The disconnect and lack of traction among current candidates, and how he aims to stand out

• Critical issues facing Rhode Island such as infrastructure failures, fiscal management, and project mismanagement

• The importance of decisive leadership, especially regarding the Washington Bridge collapse

• Management failures in Rhode Island's government projects and how to address them

• The potential for AI and technological disruption impacting state policy

• Fiscal strategies, including potential reallocation of funds and critiques of tax policies

• The influence of party politics, coalition building, and the shift toward independent support

• His commitment to transparency, accountability, and pragmatic solutions for long-term stability

Timestamps: 00:00 - Introducing Ken Block and his diverse background 00:24 - Ken's career in software and political activism 00:50 - Past political efforts and advocacy for good governance 01:18 - Journey from opposition to running for governor 02:44 - How polling and fundraising influenced his decision 03:15 - The weak current political landscape and his outsider message 04:01 - The impact of his campaign on the Democrat primary 06:22 - Rhode Island's unique challenges and broader macroeconomic issues 07:35 - Why Ken Block believes he is qualified to lead through disruption 08:05 - Management failures in major Rhode Island projects 09:30 - Critical analysis of the Washington Bridge failure and accountability 10:56 - Building a political coalition in a polarized environment 11:36 - The importance of decisiveness and political courage 12:29 - Lessons from Bruce Sundlun's decision-making style 13:55 - The need for fact-based, quick decision-making in government 15:12 - Lack of political courage and transparency in government failures 16:08 - The recurring mistakes like the Washington Bridge and fiscal mismanagement 17:30 - Infrastructure neglect and dysfunction 18:28 - Budget management, reallocations, and fiscal responsibility 20:11 - Managing large projects and the importance of skilled oversight 21:35 - Addressing state spending inefficiencies 22:28 - The importance of smarter government spending 23:24 - Challenges of housing development and infrastructure costs 24:36 - The unrealistic scope of housing targets and pragmatic solutions 26:14 - The potential of private investments like the Superman Building 28:48 - Rhode Island's economic and demographic challenges compared to Boston 29:55 - The impact of tax policies and the flight of high earners 31:00 - Building a broad political coalition across party lines 33:24 - The disconnect between community needs and government response 35:56 - The failure to maintain infrastructure and deliver public services 38:34 - The political landscape, party fragmentation, and independent prospects 39:57 - Ken Block's commitment to fixing core government issues and future outlookResources & Links:

http://www.navigantcu.org

Transcript

Bill Bartholomew 0:00

Ken Block, welcome back to the show.

Ken Block 0:01

Thanks for having me.

Bill Bartholomew 0:02

Before we get into the fact that you're running for government, let's just get your version of a bio because there's so many different ways that people describe you.

Ken Block 0:08

I've done some things over time. So uh my in my day job, I own a software engineering business. Uh we provide engineering services to very large companies where computer systems that handle tons of transactions that have to work really fast. That's our specialty. Uh and what's become a hobby over the years and a passion uh has been being involved in what's going on in Rhode Island. And that involvement sometimes hasn't involved running for office, uh, sometimes it's involved being an advocate. Uh I've run for office twice before. I created a centrist political party in uh 2009. I had to sue the state and federal court because their laws to do that were unconstitutional, and we got them tossed out. Uh that was my first taste. I got 6.5% of the vote, uh and I needed 5% to keep the party going, and that was a pretty substantial effort for somebody who was not known at all uh to the people of Rhode Island. Uh in 2014, I realized I was good at running, and I really had ideas that a lot of other candidates didn't. Uh and I uh barely lost my primary for a Republican candidate for governor by 3,000 votes. Um and uh on the advocacy side of things, I engaged with the 50-year effort to get rid of the master lever in Rhode Island. Uh I was involved with it for about eight years, and uh I really helped push that over the finish line. It was a huge win for good government. Uh it was a huge push, and we brought hundreds of hundreds of people to the statehouse to get it done. I've advocated for fiscal stability in our cities and towns. Uh, and sadly and unfortunately, we still don't have it, and we just learned that Cranston is in a crisis right now. Uh, I believe we have to do a lot of things to stabilize our cities and towns' finances and make sure that we're okay. Uh I have been really focused in on a light on veto, which is another good government uh issue. Uh I'm not the guy who shows up when he's running for something and then isn't there any other time. Uh I believe that you should always be engaged and always doing things. And uh I never really thought I'd be in the situation where you'd be talking to each other with me as a candidate. Uh and even a month ago, this was not on my radar at all. A month ago, not at all. Not at all. A month ago, nowhere close. My family was beyond not bought in. Interesting. Yeah. So this has been a crazy three weeks. I'd I've been announced not quite two weeks tomorrow. And uh I had only made the decision to announce the week before that. And there's a whole story in there that's very personal. I won't get into it, but uh I went from basically hell no to Witty Way. Wow. And yeah, so that's the whole reason that I'm in at this point, plus the fact that the other candidates have no traction. Zero. And it's shocking that that's the case here because we have uh Helena Folkes and Dan McKee, the incumbent governor, have been running against each other for five years. They've spent, I don't know, five, six, seven, eight million dollars collectively so far. Uh and within their own primary, neither of them pulls over 25%. The voters don't like whatever their message is, or or I don't know what the malfunction is. It doesn't matter to me. What matters to me is we need to elect somebody who's going to address the problems. Uh and they really haven't talked about how they're going to address any of the problems. And all you're going to hear from me, probably to an extent that will make your ears bleed, is how I'm going to address the problems.

Bill Bartholomew 3:46

Right. So a month ago you're not considering running for governor at a serious level. Now you're in it. It goes from a hell no to a hell yes, essentially. You're all in on this. Although when you first announced, I remember on a radio interview here on WPRO, I remember you saying you're gonna you're gonna take a little bit of time to assess the the traction of or the or the travel of whether it's polling or fundraising.

Ken Block 4:08

So both. Uh and I've already determined that the fundraising is there. In the first week, we raised about $40,000. Uh and so that made me feel excellent because I've run twice before, and forty thousand dollars would be hard for me to do in a month in a week. Uh and and so, yes, that's that's a big thing for them, a big thing for me. And I know that the there's pent-up demand for giving to me. That's all bottled up because everybody's waiting on the poll that's in the field as we speak. Uh I expect the poll to be complete by tonight. Uh I don't expect the analysis to be done uh be by tomorrow, which is when I would need to have it done early enough to get it out in the news cycle, which means I'll probably sit on it until Monday. Yeah. Uh but you know, I'll I'm pretty sure it's gonna be a positive signal for me for sure. Uh, and enough for me to basically tell everybody decision is made, the the markers are there, the path is there, the money is there, let's go.

Bill Bartholomew 5:10

What I think is gonna be most interesting about whatever polling comes in the near future, in the in the wake of your announcement, is how much Ken Block, the entity Ken Block fills the undecided component of what we've seen so far in the Democrat primary field. Obviously, you're not running in the Democrat primary, you will have an impact on it no matter what the candidates say, how they sculpt their message is going to be impacted by your message. There's no way around that. But I do agree, having covered both two four years ago and now this race, it's it's not about issues that seem to resonate with the average everyday person. We hear so much about well, Helena Folkes is an op she's a drug dealer because of her time at CVS, and Dan McKee in one way, shape, or form is responsible for the Washington Bridge, people being stuck in traffic. And that's kind of where it starts and stops. And I would agree that Rhode Islanders I mean, let's get right in. Let me let me let's let me ask you this question right here. We're heading into, if not already in, the most disruptive time technologically, perhaps economically, in maybe human history, certainly in a very long time, certainly in our lifetimes.

Ken Block 6:23

Well, for Rhode Islanders in particular, I would argue 30 years. Because Bruce Sunlin inherited a an unbelievable financial crisis. Yeah, the response that almost shut down the state. So from a Rhode Islanders' perspective, 30 years ago, the that crisis with the credit unions uh was by far the the biggest threat to our basically our existence that we've seen.

Bill Bartholomew 6:45

I I I and I would agree that right now we face a lot of different pictures fiscally, psychologically as well here in Rhode Island that are so important, but even on the macro, with AI disruption, with the global landscape just as unpredictable as ever, and in no way, shape, or form trending in a direction that looks anything like the world order we kind of all grew up in. That's a big picture question, but it's happening right now. It's shaping decision making on so many levels. Why is Ken Block the most qualified person to leave Rhode Island through this disruptive moment?

unknown 7:19

Yeah.

Ken Block 7:20

So uh I'm gonna start with two of the biggest fiascos that we've had, recent fiascos. We've had plenty of fiascos. Sure. But you know, in recent uh within the last couple of months, we spent $100 million on a state payroll system that has screwed up the paychecks for state employees, continues to screw up getting uh accurate tax forms delivered uh for the tax filing, which is due today, by the way, right? April 15th. Uh and that was $100 million. Uh it's been a cat catastrophe of a project. Uh it's negatively impacted virtually everybody who works for the state government. Uh and it's a symptom, right? Because we had we've messed up similar and even bigger projects like UHIP slash RI Bridges, which was a billion-dollar benefits delivery system that to this day is uh substantially broken and not well, doing its job not well, and we're gonna throw that out and re-procure it, which is a mind-boggling expense to throw away. I do these sorts of large, really big projects for a living. I'm helping some of my biggest clients help them reorganize their business processes, and these are the things that Rhode Island really has to do. There are root causes, is what we say in my industry. There are reasons that we keep messing these projects up. We have to identify what they are, and we have to make sure we we fix things and change the way we do business so it doesn't happen again. It's one of the biggest, most important things that we can do, and we've had two decades of governors who haven't done it. Uh the bridge, similar type situation, but a little different. Uh I have been almost certainly the loudest voice about the bridge problem and how we should never have landed here in the first place. Uh there's plenty of evidence that we knew as a state, the DOT knew that this bridge was in trouble for about a decade, took no proactive steps to fix it. In fact, they took some political steps back to the Raimundo years, uh, that actually probably sealed its fate. Uh, and we don't have any accountability for it at all, right? What has not happened by the DOT, what has not happened by Governor McKee was here's how it went wrong, and here's how we're going to make sure we never do it again. You haven't heard anything about that. And to me, that's criminal, completely wrong. Uh, and it's no way to run a government. And I'm dedicated to fixing the broken DOT, and I think the only way to deal with it is to sweep out all the managers, uh, bring in a new set of management, uh, and set things up for a more transparent uh department of transportation where the procurements are more even-handed. Uh the big companies don't bid on our projects because they know they're not going to win because of the insider status of how many projects that we do and how they go. So, all for all those reasons, uh we have to do things really differently. And here's the crazy thing, and I I've said this in previous interviews, but it really bears say Democrats, Republicans, insiders, they all know that what we're doing here isn't working. They all recognize it. They just do. Uh, and in this political moment, with me being the only person that's actually talking about how to how to fix it, and with my long track record of being engaged in issues that are important to Rhode Island and to me, you know, my my pet issues, uh people are beginning to abandon their party identities in this race. Uh, and I know that from some of the people who've already lined up behind me and told me they're going to help. Uh and that's perfect because this is my flavor of politics. I want to be in the political middle. I want to be the answer person, and I just want to do the job professionally, which is what the voters, when they cast their votes, they're casting a vote to hire the person they think that can make the biggest difference. Uh and I think I'm that I think I'm that difference.

Bill Bartholomew 11:21

Yeah, there's a lot in there I want to get to, but I want to go back to the notion, and you invoked Bruce Sundlin, and I think there's there is an analogy there that is so important right now, which is So look, he in my eyes, he is a giant.

Ken Block 11:33

And uh I am not. So I don't compare myself to him not ad uh and accidentally or otherwise. Uh I take care not to do that because uh I'm not sure.

Bill Bartholomew 11:46

Well let's talk about Bruce Sundlin psychologically. Let's and and and day one closing the credit unions and what that means, what that decision means, what that says about a guy who flew those bomber planes, who understands what a a real-time decision means in real life and the the ripple effect there, and what not making that decision means as well. How does that inform your day-to-day and political life, that mindset?

Ken Block 12:14

Yeah, so uh I I live that mindset. Uh I am in business, uh acting as not only a trusted advisor, but I have consultants that uh I place into these businesses, uh, and we are constantly faced with making high-level decisions, and but they have to be made quickly because oftentimes these decisions relate to either how the business is running or not running well and changes we have to make, or they're in the process of bidding on a contract and there are deadlines and we have to reach answers quickly and accurately. So uh I'm quite used to it. I am uh there's no easy way to say this. I'm a man of action. I uh have an ability to assess quickly, make a decision, uh, and uh I'm able to live with those decisions, and I'm right way way more than I'm born. Uh and I'm also careful though. And uh, you know, I have done really in-depth studies on uh governments and how things work and don't work. Uh and I believe in fact based fact-based decision making. So again, I have that in my background. That's a key fiber of my being that I don't know that anybody else in the else anybody else in this race has. And that's really what I think we need right now. The answers cut can only come from diving in, collating all the facts, going through it, telling everybody here's the facts, here's what they mean, and here's what our answer is.

Bill Bartholomew 16:02

Yeah. Decisiveness seems to be it seems to have just disappeared when it comes to the Washington Bridge, at least from a public. I would agree on a on a on a on a wide basis, individual thinking. It's it's a it's an it's like this huge deal when you get a Tim Burchette or somebody like that that defies party line on a national stage and even here locally. But that di that decisiveness is, I think, the thing that really resonated with Rhode Islanders or the lack of decisiveness when it comes to the Washington Bridge. Not necessarily day one, hey, everything went perfectly in terms of our preparation for this media event and whatever. And that's not it. It's a we're gonna make a decision, and this decision, it might mess up your commute, it might reveal things about our system of power here in Rhode Island that not everybody knows, that not everybody is quote unquote supposed to know, but needs to know. That's political courage. And and I'm not accusing the governor or anybody else of not having that in this this particular inst instance uh on a blanket basis, but in terms of communicating with the state with what happened, it leaves a lot of questions where people start to use their own imagination, including there's a lot of corruption happening here.

unknown 17:18

Yeah.

Ken Block 17:18

Well, I'll say it. Uh the governor has exhibited no political courage when it has come to dealing with accountability, explaining to us how this could have possibly happened in the first place, and telling us how to make how he's made sure it will never happen again. We've had nothing about that. And that isn't that shouldn't take political courage. That's him doing his job. Uh and it hasn't gotten done. I'm sure there are political reasons why he hasn't done his job, but that's not the concern of Rhode Islanders. They want to know that any other half a billion dollar asset that we have, whether it's a bridge or anything else, that it's being managed and maintained correctly because that bridge certainly wasn't. Uh and we know it's when I keep that I'm going to come back to this a bunch of times as we talk. We keep making the same mistake over and over again, and I am scared to death that there is another Washington bridge just waiting out there for us because the DOT has ignored it and we're about to pay the price again.

Bill Bartholomew 18:15

Well, why wouldn't there be? I mean, this is a this is a situation that since really the turn of the century, I remember going to a presentation when I was living in New York with some admiral, admiral, U.S. Coast Guard Admiral, that gave a presentation at Cooper Union about how our infrastructure was going to be basically useless in 30 to 40 years if we don't make transformational change. So that that concept, you can see it popping up all over the place around the country. But when you really zoom in on Rhode Island and you see the Washington Bridge, you know, you can get a, you know, have a talk radio segment where you've got a bureaucrat that comes on and says, well, we had this engineer check this and check that, and everything's great. And, you know, let's have a let's have a celebration of just how wonderful we are. You can have a bureaucrat come and say that. The fact of the matter is, why would the average person have faith in government right now in Rhode Island when it comes to maintaining infrastructure after the Washington Bridge? The answer is they ought not.

Ken Block 19:08

And they don't. Right? And this is really what's breathing life in into uh my candidacy here. Uh, whether it is the payroll systems, whether it is the bridge, uh, and there's a ton of other things. If you've ever had to work with DHS, that's which is uh Health and Human Services, uh for benefits and that sort of thing, there is horror show after horror show about how our government is misfiring. And there is no excuse for it, right? And there is a way to make it better, and it's really not at all on the state employees as much as it is on the management of it. From the department chairs right down to the mid-level managers, uh we're not managing to the task and and we're not constantly improving, which is really what organizations always have to do. If you're not constantly improving, you're stagnating, which is the the worst possible place, and we're stagnating in an area of monumental dysfunction throughout the government, and people don't want it. It costs us dearly, right? When when this hundred million dollar software project goes sideways, we're paying millions of dollars to on top of what we've already spent to fix it. And UHIP started as a hundred million dollar project, and now it is with no word of exaggeration, over a billion dollars that's been sunk into it. Uh we cannot continue to mismanage this sort of thing.

unknown 20:34

It's killing us.

Bill Bartholomew 20:35

When people talk about state budgets this year, that last year, whatever it is, and the number comes out, and and there's always, well, look at New Hampshire. Okay, well, they have counties. There's a million reasons why a Rhode Island budget is unique. Part of that's entitlement programs, part of it is things that are just fixed into the Rhode Island psyche or the way we do. Some people hate it, some people love it, whatever. That's just part of the deal. Where there is a lot, there are two areas where there are obvious cuts potential. I I should let me I trip over that because it's not obvious, but potentially could be a space for cuts. And that is, of course, these ballooning projects that are usually of a digital nature, usually of an infrastructure nature, that at the end of the day are seemingly at least partially unreliable. And also now in an era where we're seeing unbelievable transformation in technology and what can be accomplished. I'm not suggesting we get open claw and have you know somebody on the governor's staff manage our government, but it's changing. It could be AI washing to say we need to shrink government and replace it with AI. At the same time, should government shrink? Should AI come in? Is that part of the problem here?

Ken Block 21:49

Uh well, if you're asking me what I think the root cause of most of our problems right now, uh I've already said it. It's management. We are failing to manage these projects correctly. Is it possible and or even likely that we're missing some of the skill sets we need to protect the taxpayers' interest on these hundred million dollar uh uh software and infrastructure projects? I don't think I'm going out on a limb to say, yeah, we probably don't have some of the people that we need, uh, because they're expensive to have them on staff. But when you have a billion dollars wrapped up in a software package, how can you afford not to have that person on staff? Right? So uh there's going to be you have to have I have to be able to get in, have the assessment, figure it all out, and then if we do have needs uh for new skills, I have to go make the case to the General Assembly, which I will fully be prepared to do. Uh and hopefully they will see how it's smart to spend this money, which relatively speaking isn't very much, to hire the right people to protect us on the other end from what could be a colossally big problem, right? Uh look, our budget, our current budget is fifteen billion dollars, which is comes out to roughly fifteen thousand dollars per man, woman, and child who's here. And when you stack that up against most other states, it's really high. Uh and I think part of the problem is we're misspending a good size chunk of that money. Uh and some of that money is just being wasted on projects that go over, and and because of our mistakes, we're paying more for them. Yeah. Uh the auditor general has told us in many cases where we are spending money that we're not supposed to be doing, right? And so we already have a roadmap of sorts for how to uh save some money because we're not within whatever the rules or regulations are uh on whatever program it is, and we need to deal with that because those same things come up year after year after year after year. And when I added them all up one year, we came out to well over a hundred million dollars, right? And I sure we can all think about ways we can spend a hundred million dollars, right? So you know, it's it is it it uh and I don't know what everybody's capabilities are inside of government right now. I can assure you that I've been speaking to many people in the last two weeks, and I'm talking to some incredibly smart people who work in state W. Uh So it is not the the the we have the raw materials to be way more successful than we are right now. Uh and I it's the politicians who are screwing it up. If I'm just going to be honest about it, that's where the problems come from.

Bill Bartholomew 24:34

Aaron Powell The reallocation piece is something that is so important. You mentioned that's where there's a million places we could use $100 million. That's how fiscal it's a dangerous term to be fiscally conservative. You all of a sudden get pegged as uh you're you're anti-social programs. No, no, no. You're actually pro them. You want to fund them. We we have RIPTA right now, and by the way, they're proposing the funding mechanic, which they made up the difference with the gas tax, that they fund the this is the McKee budget. They're proposing to basically take away the funding mechanism for RIPT. You know, and we're talking about single-digit millions of dollars. So when you think about reallocation, I think that is such an important element of this governor's race that very few people pay attention to. They say, well, there's a gap here. But where that money comes from is oftentimes the more difficult work to scrutinize. And you're saying that that would be a big component of your work.

Ken Block 25:30

Trevor Burrus, Jr. It absolutely has to be because we can't keep growing our budget at the rate that it's growing, right? And I know we're gonna talk about housing. I'm just gonna jump right to my that we so first of all, nobody across the country has figured it out, right? So that somebody in Little Rhode Island is gonna magically have the magic solution to a national problem that drives everybody crazy because there is no obvious answer. Uh here, I've heard, you know, I've heard candidates discuss we need 20,000 more housing units, we need 24,000 more housing units. At the very low end, it costs $200,000 to build them each. So you can do the math, $20,000 times $200,000 is uh roughly $4 billion. Where does that come from? And at the high end of $20,000 units uh at roughly $600,000 a unit, which is where a lot of the nonprofits are who build these neighborhoods of affordable units, that is close to $14 billion. Right. Right. And so no millionaires' tax is gonna cover that unless you confiscate every dime they have.

Bill Bartholomew 26:37

And in Rhode Island, we still probably don't have that kind of I don't think we have even anywhere near close to have an impact.

Ken Block 26:43

Anywhere near it. Uh so it's gonna come down to it's pie in the sky to say that we're gonna be able to produce this many units. Uh the first thing we have to figure out is how do we get the most bang for the buck, right? Uh and we're sinking a lot of money into the Superman building, and I haven't run the numbers fully, so I can't say this with any certainty. But I'm pretty sure as far as bang is bang for the buck, uh that's those are gonna be really expensive, affordable units, and we could probably build a hell of a lot more of them putting that money somewhere else.

Bill Bartholomew 27:14

Yeah. And the constant there, they say, well, the cost to demo demolish the building is XYZ, and it's a you know the historic component of it, whatever. That's one, but you're right. That's one example where you go, is that the best move forward? Is that the most contemporary, interesting new idea? Probably not. It's just an old building that is an office building filled with asbestos that they want to turn into.

Ken Block 27:36

And the problem is it it's it's an office building that no that no office wants to move into because it has to be really completely gutted and renovated to to make it into a 21st century uh place, right? Right. Um and for housing, it's the same challenge, right? We you really have to rip it apart and rebuild it in place, which makes it incredibly expensive. So I don't know what the answer is for the Superman building. I it's privately owned, and I really would like to see the private ownership of that figure it out. Absolutely. And with a bit less of a an ask of of government for assistance because the amount of money that they're asking government to put in should make us the the the majority owner of Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, it's it's everybody wants to spend money. And we only have a limited amount of it, so we have to get smarter about how we spend it. And we're really, frankly, right now, pretty dumb about how we spend.

Bill Bartholomew 28:34

Yeah. And there's so many impending crises, private credit going belly up, our pension system is heavily invested there. You talk about the Superman building, okay. You move downtown to an old office building, you pay twenty four hundred dollars a month to live in an apartment, tiny apartment. Now what? You can't even get a cup of coffee at seven o'clock at night in downtown Providence. The place stinks right now. Anybody I live in Providence, I love Providence, I spend most nights in Providence. I go out every time I it is not in any way, shape, or form a place where we should have luxury apartments downtown. Now you could say, well, that's the chicken and the egg equation, except for it's not. You're falsifying the value of that from a market standpoint, or inflating it to just then say, hey, uh Brown University incoming grad student that lives in foreign country whose dad is paying the rent, uh, how much is the rent of that place? It's close to campus, it's safe. Yeah, check, check, check, thanks. You're building student housing. That's what, at the end of the day, in one way, shape, or form. So it's it doesn't even address the root cause. It's a narrow element of a macro issue issue, though, that you raise for sure.

Ken Block 29:38

Yeah, it you know, when you're in Boston, there's such a different energy level than there is in Professor, right? Uh and young people want that energy, right? And so when they're moving into an urban environment, they want to be energized by their environment. And you know, and Providence is wonderful in so many ways. Don't stammy, but it doesn't have the energy because we really don't have the jobs, right? Uh and we're we're turning so much of that high-value 195 land into uh housing that we're taking away our ability to build the structures necessary to really be attractive to uh some of these big businesses. But even if we did that, they still have a problem coming to Providence, which is about as far as from fiscal stability as you can imagine. And nobody wants to expose their business to being used as an ATM, which is what would likely be the case right now, right? And you know, and I a lot of the tax policy that's being proposed in the General Assembly right now uh is scaring the pants off of anybody who might have been considering bringing a substantial business here. It's a huge disincentive to come here with some of the tax policies.

Bill Bartholomew 30:55

So you would not be in favor of any sort of millionaire's tax or anything like that in terms of code.

Ken Block 31:05

You're gonna get the same kind of result if you penalize millionaires. They're gonna get less of them. And that is just rational economic behavior on their way. Everyone who's taking economics 101 knows that uh if they could do the same thing somewhere else and it will cost less, they're gonna do it. That's why so many jobs have left here over the years, right? Manufacturing jobs are can be done much more cheaply somewhere else at this point, within the country and outside the country. Uh and anybody who just doesn't appreciate that is just disconnected what the hard realities are. In mass, four billion dollars in adjusted gross income a year has left Massachusetts since they implemented their uh Italy Interest tax. Four billion dollars in adjusted gross income.

Speaker 2 31:53

That is a huge hit.

Ken Block 31:55

Uh and we and when you lose the really wealthy, you lose their philanthropy, their civic engagement, right? Uh and we are really much poorer for it what when this happens. So uh look, if I felt that we really needed revenue, it would be a conversation a hard conversation to discuss. But in this circumstance where we have so much revenue, a huge budget, the fact that there are people who believe we need even more are not looking in the right place. So let's uh let's ask if we're spending all of that money in a way that makes sense. Yeah.

Bill Bartholomew 32:36

And the answer is definitely really interesting. To get elected and and and once you are elected, it's there's a journey that you're that maybe you're on it now, but you would have to be on it, which is something that is seemingly absent from American politics right now. Coalition building. There's no way you can you you you can't get elected. Uh I mean, I guess if every independent voter in the state voted for you, yes, that that would be the but if if you're going to make any maneuvers in policy-wise, you're gonna need a a certainly presence within the Democrat Party and beyond.

Ken Block 33:08

I have Democrats who uh are recognizable names who have assured me that they're behind me. I have Republicans who also have uh recognizable names who have pledged their support to me. Uh and in both cases, the reason for it was because they didn't see any other option, right? So in this moment in time here in Rhode Island, it's the perfect time for the kind of politics that that I practice, right? I'm sitting in the political middle, I'm focused in on the crisis issues that are so big they can consume an entire four-year term. Uh, and people want them fixed. So it's this moment right now uh that my form of politics was really built for, designed for. Uh and I don't have to, I'm not working hard to build that coalition. That pole coalition is kind of coming to me. And uh it's been really exciting so far. Uh I've raised way more money than in a in a week than I had raised in in a whole lot more time in my previous candidacies. Uh the support is out there. Uh more often than not, the first thing someone says to me, whether I call them out of the blue or they are contacting me as well, one of the first things I hear is some form of thank goodness. Uh, because they just didn't know, they didn't see anybody that they wanted to vote for, right? Uh and it's about kind of an indictment of our politics that uh five years of running against each other, neither folks nor McKee has figured out how to appeal to their own voters. Right? Inside the Democratic Party, they're under 25% support. Uh yeah. The the voters want something different. Uh and I'm happy to live in that space to do it. That's been my gut all the way along here. I believe that's my path. Hopefully the poll shows that that path not only is a possibility, but I'm already well down the trail on it, and I think I might be. Uh I don't want to, I don't know, I can't measure any number numerical guesses because it could be anywhere, right? But the voters here are really not happy. They're not they're not eat they're not even close to happy. Uh and they want answers, they want it fixed, they want and I've used this in the past, and it's still true now. They want the government to effectively make the trains run on time. Yeah.

Speaker 2 35:36

Right? That's it's a it's a quality of life thing. And holy moly, are we not getting it?

Bill Bartholomew 35:42

Well, it's so interesting that as we see all of these major shifts around the world, all the horror around the world that that's happening, and and even in our own country, and complete chaos in on the the national stage. I mean, there's no other way to put it. It's totally insane on a seemingly daily basis, if not hourly basis. But here in Rhode Island, some of the biggest political stories of the last couple of years have been a bridge that broke, snow plows that that are streets that didn't get plowed to satisfaction or or to standards uh during major snowstorms, issues with the disbursement and the distribution of compliance materials for state employees, things like this, a data breach that impacted most Rhode Islanders uh that that using the the health source breach, the delight breach. Uh these are not issues of you know that you really have to get up on the top of you know Yago Valley at night and stare into the ether to think about. This is just, hey, what are we doing? What in God's name are we doing here? Why are we this is not a cheap place to live, and it is not in in in in any way, shape, or form, a scenario right now where the average everyday Rhode Islander, whether they know who the governor is, whether they know who the speaker of the house is, you, me, the whatever, it doesn't matter, anybody. They could just be a regular person that doesn't even know how that there is a governor. They would be able to tell you, yeah, I don't think it's working right.

Ken Block 37:10

Uh it is most definitely not working right. And, you know, the piece of the bridge that look, it wouldn't be one thing if our bridge was knocked down by a boat like what happened in Baltimore. Sure. Right. That's not why our bridge fell down, right? Our bridge was neglected to death. And the DOT did not know that this bridge was on the cusp of failure until they had to shut it down under an emergency scenario because somebody who was not an employee of the DOT noticed that the damn thing was bouncing up and down by several feet.

Speaker 2 37:44

Yeah.

Ken Block 37:44

Right? That is a failure of government. It is a break with the voters to do the things that they're supposed to do as elected and appointed officials. Uh there's no excuse for it. It's absolutely hideously wrong. And on the East Bay in particular, right, this is this has a big impact here. If you have to go, if you either work in the East Bay and live on the other side of the bridge, or you uh live in the East Bay and you have to go across the bridge daily to go to work or whatever, those people are paying an awful price for the incompetency that uh is appears to be throughout the Rhode Island Department of Transportation. So failure of government and Governor McKee's failure was to not engage and clean it up, determine how it happened and make sure it didn't happen again. He has been missing in action. Uh we have a lot of candidates who either have no idea about what it is they they can actually do as governor, let alone, you know, what they what they might do. They don't even know what the powers of the governor's office. Uh and then we have candidates who are so lacking in political courage that they're just trying to survive their primaries, telling people whatever it is that those people need to hear. Uh and I'm telling you what not what anybody needs to hear. I'm telling people what we need to do to fix this. And there's a big, big difference between whispering a sweet nothing that makes you feel better about things versus committing to fixing the core of the problems that we're suffering from right now. That's what differentiates me from everybody else in this race. Uh and that is a resonant message. People are really getting it, they're appreciating it, and political parties aren't going to be as big a factor in this race as they have been in the past because the parties definitely haven't produced the answers there.

Bill Bartholomew 39:44

And they have their own thing going on in the Democrat Party right now. The idea that, you know, will the party endorse Dan McKee or not? Is there something happening behind the scenes that Joe Shikarchy dropped out of the race so that now he can become a Supreme Court justice? You know, what what role does Helena Folkes have with Shikarchy? All this stuff is kind of on the inside. Uh and the average everyday person who they couldn't care less whether or not Helena Folkes get or Dan McKee gets the North Kingstown town endorsement. I mean, okay. But at the end of the day, it does show right now, even within the party here, there's there's a fracturing of alliances and there is there's no doubt an uncertainty as to which direction the Democrat Party should go. And maybe, maybe I say that and somebody hears this and says, what are you crazy? It's got to go the folks' way. What are you nuts? Or someone else says, no, no, it's got to be continuity, it's got to be McKee. What's clear is that one, they don't have a leftist candidate of any, they don't have a leftist candidate, period, but no one has emerged. The proverbial Aaron Regenberg hasn't entered the equation in this race, or the Matt Brown, or anybody like that. So that's not available to them. Uh and so the voter looks to kind of two centrist people that aren't the party is simply not signaling to the voter, here's the direction we want to go. The voter is just left to say, here's two people that seem like they don't like each other, and I've got to pick the kids up from school, and by the way, I'm behind on rent, uh, even though I'm working full-time. That that's what people are thinking. And that does create a natural space for independent candidates.

Ken Block 41:17

The vacuum is there. I like to say we we we are we are in a political vacuum. Uh it is devoid of answers, uh, which is really what people want, right? They they want to know that we're not gonna screw it up again, okay? You can forgive a mistake. Even a billion dollar mistake you can forgive, I suppose. But you shouldn't have gotten there in the first place. You but you better make darn sure that you don't make it again. And that hasn't happened. Right? That hasn't happened in McKee, it hasn't happened under Raimundo, it hasn't happened under Chafee. Uh we've gone a long time without addressing the dysfunction in our government. Uh and I am hellbent to fix all of this and set us up so that we don't make these mistakes.

Bill Bartholomew 42:03

Ken Block running for governor of Rhode Island.