- It's a very, very difficult environment for the governor.

- As much as he's gaining ground in this poll, it does seem like, you know, with what, two weeks to go, not looking great.

- People are in this world now where they don't know what's real.

It's easy to make slop, as so many people say.

- I would not want to be the one to police it.

How do you know if something is AI, if they say, no, it's not, right?

How do you prove that?

(upbeat music) - And welcoming to this episode of "Lively", I'm Jim Hummel, we're joined this week by Providence Journal Reporter Antonia Farzan, and WPRI Politics Editor Ted Nesi.

Dan McKee has gained some ground in his Democratic primary race against challenger Helena, Foulkes, but the governor is running out of time to close what is still a substantial gap.

Meanwhile, two other statewide races could go down to the wire according to a poll release this week by WPRI TV.

So Ted, we're fortunate to have you on this week with this.

So give us the numbers.

McKee has, again, has narrowed the gap, but we are less than two weeks from voting.

- Yeah, for you, Jim, I brought my poll book here.

- There we go.

- I have all my numbers with me so I don't get them wrong.

So we have this race now, Foulkes is up 15 points.

She's at 45%, McKee's at 30%, undecided at 25.

We had the race at 20 points.

We do these polls with Emerson College.

We had it at 20 points, her lead, back in May.

So as you said, five points of improvement for McKee, but five points to a 15 point margin is, it's an uphill battle.

And then when we push the undecideds to say, "Okay, the election is close.

Who do you think you're going to end up with?"

The final result is 61% Foulkes, 39% McKee, because he's even more underwater.

The undecideds are not thrilled with either of them, but he's even more underwater with the undecideds than her.

So it's just, it's more of, I think, what we've been talking about for a while.

It's a very, very difficult environment for the governor.

- Yeah, given that, I mean, it seems like this is reflecting his debate performance, that gave him a bit of a boost, but it doesn't seem like there's anything else really coming down the pipeline that necessarily could offer that again.

And at the same time, I believe in the past few days, his campaign ads were off air because he was running low on cash.

So that definitely doesn't help.

So as much as he's gaining ground in this poll, it does seem like, you know, with what, two weeks to go, not looking great.

- And, Jim, the problem that sticks out to me most in the poll for the governor is his numbers with Democrats.

He is underwater.

Turn to that page actually.

I can have it here.

- Oh, he's got a tab.

- He's, yeah, I've got my tabs here.

He's only at 30% favorable with registered Democrats, 47% unfavorable, so minus 17.

And with Democratic primary voters, which includes independents who want to vote in the primary, he's only at 27% favorable, 59% unfavorable, minus 32.

You know, when you think of, let's say Sheldon Whitehouse, he's a good example.

Sheldon White House never has very good numbers with independents, very bad numbers with Republicans.

But Democrats like him and in a place like Rhode Island, Democrats plus some independents, that's enough.

McKee does not have the Democrats even though he's the Democratic incumbent nominee, and that's so much of his fundamental problem.

- Yeah.

What you said, the undecideds, if they had to vote, which way would they go?

Plus I think job approval rating.

His favorability is not there.

And this is reflected, it's a lot of what we've seen in the polls.

The polls have been pretty consistent.

We've seen over the last couple election cycles, you know, maybe polls are unpredictable.

It seems like every poll is down this lane.

- Yeah.

And bridge in opioids, right?

The bridge is albatross around his neck in poll after poll.

And it does seem like in this one, you know, they have been successful in linking Foulkes with the opioid issue to some extent, but it just, the bridge, the bridge, that's all.

- As we know, it's get out the vote.

And so it was interesting.

We talked to maybe a month ago when the AFL-CIO decided to sit out the endorsement, and that was a big deal because he was hoping for that.

But he's been racking up little individual, not little, but they add up to a lot of union endorsements.

At the end of the day, it's really who gets to the polls, right?

- Yeah, I mean, you know, the scenario for the McKee Foulkes right now, look, obviously the baseline right now is that Foulkes wins.

When you have the independents saying they're likely to break this way, 20 points in her favor in the end, you know, highly unlikely that he can find a way.

But if he did, it would be some combination of, frankly, a catastrophic polling error, not just us.

Every poll has shown a double digit lead for Foulkes for months now.

And then maybe lower turnout and the unions really get their members.

You know, he came out for this rule of 90 the other day, which would let you retire sooner for state workers and teachers.

They've wanted that for a while.

- And that was a big deal when Raimondo took that away during the pension reform.

- Yeah, so that's something they can tell them, "Hey, he says if he gets back in, he'll give you, he'll let you retire earlier."

You know, they're hoping maybe are there Morales McKee crossover voters in Providence, things like that.

But you know, I just think where I think I have a little more faith in the polls in say what you just saw in Michigan where the Senate polls were way off is these two are very well known at this point.

It's not a multi-way field with four or five candidates.

Dan McKee is the, he's been the governor for these voters for more than half a decade now.

I think opinions of him are pretty well formed.

- Yeah, and to your point about the Providence election, I think it'll be really interesting to see how that affects us because we're already seeing turnout in Providence much higher than in previous cycles.

- In the early voting.

- In the early voting.

Yeah.

Given that you know, obviously very competitive mayoral election there.

And I'm curious how much also that translates to just anti-incumbent segment, right?

How many people are gonna vote for David Morales and Helena Foulkes?

- I laugh at that actually because they say if it's just a change election, they'll take a capitalist for governor, a socialist for mayor and see how it all goes.

- Yeah, just throw the bombs out.

- Give me new people.

- Just give me someone new.

Yeah.

- Well, it will be interesting because look, Morales has got kind of the young, you know, the vibe going on.

But as they say, the signs and the endorsements don't vote.

And young people traditionally compared to people in my demographic are not as reliable getting to the polls.

- Yeah, definitely.

And I though it was interesting here also the education levels were another interesting part about this poll.

That seemed like high school only was more favorable for McKee, and then for Foulkes, definitely the college educated demographic.

- There was no crosstab, I think, to your point, Antonio, that jumped out to me more than that.

This looks like what we're seeing between Republicans and Democrats nationally where there's education tells you so much about the election.

There is a 30 point, 39 point, I believe, gap in our poll, something in the 30s from the Foulkes lead with college and advanced degree voters.

She's like well into the 50s, like up 30 something points.

McKee, as you said, it's a small sample, but he was up double digits with people who graduate high school or less.

So you have a real divide by education.

So then the question becomes, you know, in recent years, we've seen highly educated voters getting out more, becoming a larger part of the democratic base.

If those folks are definitely coming out- - How does that affect that?

- Right.

That could be good for Foulkes, but can McKee get out enough people if his coalition's a little more wobbly on turnout?

- You've written about the lieutenant governor's race and that seems to me the closest at this point, that it's Sabina Mattos, what, 20% and Khamsyvoravong, Newport, former city mayor ran Frank Caprio's election back in the day at 18%.

So it's within the margin of error.

Again, four candidates trying to get, I guess five candidates.

- Five technically.

- I didn't realize Ross McCurdy, I'd never even heard of before.

I'm sorry, Mr.

McCurdy.

So what do you see with this race?

- Yeah, really interesting.

I mean, this will be another really interesting task because you think about how much McKee and Mattos together were like a unit and then they weren't.

- Right.

- And now it's very interesting to see if either of them or both will survive this and who comes out on top at the end.

- You almost see in the poll two different tickets going on even though they're not official where Matos is up double digits with McKee voters and Khamsyvoravong is up double digits with Foulkes voters.

So they're not running together.

Well, you know, sort of McKee and Mattos.

It's hard to describe right now what- - But not really.

- Not really.

- They're not campaigning very actively that way.

- Yeah.

There's no signs for the two of them.

But you can see the voters do feel like if you're a McKee person, Matos is his LG.

And if you're a Foulkes person wanting change, you're more likely to be with Khamsyvoravong.

- I also wonder whether Sabina Matos gets a boost in providence with that surge of voters because she's a former city council president or whether that's so far in the rear view mirror that it doesn't really matter.

- Yeah.

- I don't know.

- And you have Sue AnderBois there who is a current counselor.

- Exactly.

- Hasn't been around as long, so.

- She lost Providence, I believe, in her congressional bid, Sabina Matos.

So part of what we're testing here is, you know, on the one hand, being the incumbent still matters here.

She's at 20%.

Not great for an incumbent, but it's more than anybody else, which could be enough if she builds up a little more.

But, you know, Xay Khamsyvoravong.

She's not on TV.

She has no money for ads, Sabina Matos.

And so can he break through enough?

His other problem is it's not a one-to-one race.

Helena Foulkes is benefiting from the fact that you're not spreading the anti-Mckee vote over two or three people.

- It's straight up.

- Whereas to the extent people want change in the LG race, they're divided.

AnderBois and Coyne, Cindy Coyne are almost at 10% each too.

- Let's get to the AGs race.

It's really at this point, Kim Ahern and Keith Hoffman, and what, that's about a six point different, 24, 18.

And again, 35% undecided.

So there's a lot there.

I just don't know.

I'm not sure about the voter excitement.

I think it depends on each race, but there's so many people in this race, and if you're really not following it, like you're geeking out like we are, whether you get to the polls and you're like, "Oh, maybe I saw this ad or maybe I heard somebody."

What's your take on the AGs race?

- Well, one thing, you know, we did, Tim and I did the debate with them at Roger Williams Law earlier this month, the TV debate, and you know, they don't want to have too man distinctions from each other it felt like.

You know, it was hard to even come up with questions.

- Fighting Trump.

- They all want to fight Trump.

They all want criminals to be in jail, which you kind of expect from an Attorney General.

- Shocking.

Yeah.

- Right.

You know, there's little distinctions there.

And even now you have in that race and the LGs race, you know, in a primary in particular where everyone's in this case a Democrat, everyone's petrified to attack each other.

Not McKee's and Foulkes, because you have to pick one of them.

But you know, if you're Keith Hoffman and you want to attack Kim Ahern, what if that leads some people to be mad at both of us and go over to Solomon or Knight?

So they're all kind of, it's like that Spider-Man meme where they're all pointing at each other, but nobody wants to actually make a move, and I think that's part of why it's so undifferentiated.

- Yeah, totally.

I though you guys did a great job in the Bay trying to tease out some distinctions between people- - Paid her for that.

- Who do not really want to say anything different from one another with maybe, I guess what they said, from Joe Solomon, who's taken a more conservative stance most of the time.

- That's fair, yeah.

- But I will say, I mean, definitely the number of friends I've talked to in the past week who have mixed up the LG and AG races, I think confirms your suspicion that people are not necessarily following this one as closely.

And I do think with a crowd full of people who kind of often sound the same, I think the poll found with Kim Ahern having stronger support among women.

That is the one really obvious distinguishing feature.

And there are a lot of people who will say, "Hey, I'd like to see a woman in more higher office, higher roles."

And this role in particular, it's been a lot of white men.

- I mean, you could have a majority of general officers be women if Matos can pull it out.

If Kim Ahern stays on top, if Helena Foulkes- - We haven't had a female attorney general since Arlene.

- Arlene, and never a Democratic one.

- Yeah.

So I wonder the buzz as you're out and about, whether you hear, are people not necessarily excited, but motivated to go out?

And we talked about turnout before.

In a Democratic primary, maybe 100, 120,000 Republicans, you'd be lucky to get 20 or 30.

Do you find out and about that people are into these races or do you feel a little bit of apathy?

What do you feel as you talk to people?

- I think in Providence, there's a lot of excitement for that race.

That's definitely where I feel there's a lot of energy.

And I feel like what I'm hearing more from the governor's race is people being frustrated that there are more policy differences between them, and it's really just a matter of style and temperament and who you think will be a better manager, really, of the state rather than having, you know, saying, "I agree with this person or I agree with that."

Because it's really hard to find the daylight between them on policy.

- I have to admit, as a TV guy, and you'll appreciate this, Jim, I was gratified and maybe a little surprised.

We got a good TV rating for the Channel 12 debate.

- So people are locked in.

- And I said, all right, because I wonder mid- - For the second week of August, right?

- Well, exactly, Jim, right?

We used to always do the debates right around Labor Day, right before the vote because you figure people are still in vacation mode in mid-August.

- [Jim] A lot of people have cast their ballot already.

- Exactly, with early voting, we've moved the debates to early into mid-August.

People were paying attention.

So I also do think, you know, the Trump environment, this is, we're talking about a Democratic primary here.

I think there are a lot of Democratic voters who are just enthused to go cast ballots because they're frustrated about the state of the country.

I'm curious how that plays into turnout as well.

- Just last thing quickly before we move on, truck tolls.

You asked about a couple of things, flock cameras.

Truck tolls I found interesting and maybe a lot of it's in the wording of the question that the majority of people said that they approved truck tolls.

I'm not sure that they think about the Ocean State job lot truck going around.

They may view it as the big semis coming through the state.

What did they show?

- Yeah, and I tried to write it as neutral as possible.

Supporter opposed the state of Rhode Island charging tolls to large commercial trucks as a way to generate revenue for transportation projects.

48% support, 32% opposed.

And what came through to me, Jim, is it just becomes a typical Democrat Republican issue in Rhode Island.

You have around 50-ish percent support, which is sort of standard Democratic, more liberal issue.

And then about a third of the electorates against it, which is sort of the standard Republican vote, the more conservative point of view.

But it does go against some of, I think, the conventional wisdom at the state house that this is a really tough issue.

It's really controversial.

And I think it might go to why you've seen state leaders, whether Governor McKee, or the legislative leaders, stand by this policy.

- Okay.

We shall see, an election two weeks away.

(upbeat music) Artificial intelligence is transforming many areas of our lives, including the way political races are run.

Look no further than this election cycle in Rhode Island.

Are there any guardrails for a rapidly developing technology?

Antonio, you had just a great story on this.

- Thank you.

- And you looked at a couple things, but it was an ad by Vic Miller in the Second Congressional District about Seth Magaziner.

Set the table for us.

- Yeah, that stood out to me because it's the first ad I've seen that has this mandatory disclosure that was required under the deep fake law that passed last year.

So basically, it starts out, you're seeing Magaziner giving a speech, and it seems kind of just like normal footage, but then it zooms in, there's a little cut, and then all of a sudden there's this room of men who are in suits and they're counting out stacks of cash and the idea of being, this is who he's really speaking to, not the people.

So that is artificially enhanced or artificially generated footage.

You know, obviously there's not real men in suits counting out giant piles of money on the stage.

So at the end there is a little thing that flashes where it says paid for by Vic Miller.

It says that it uses artificial intelligence for, forgetting the exact words, basically for imaginary purposes.

- Now, is the disclosure mandated?

You had talked about the law, and we'll get into that in a second.

So Rhode Island passed a year ago or within the last couple of- - 2025, yeah.

- 2025, but I find it interesting that the remedy is not the elections board, it's the courts.

- Yeah.

It's really hard, frankly, on the candidates because they have to take it to court to fight this.

I mean, by the time that gets heard, is the election gonna be over?

- And somebody's getting sworn in by the time they figure it out, right?

- Exactly.

Yeah.

So it does not seem... It's an unusual way of doing it.

It's also unusual.

It really only applies... One thing that stood out to me was it really only applies to political actors.

So political action committee, you know, could be a candidate themselves, a campaign, or potentially like a Democratic party committee somewhere.

But if I want to make one of these videos myself, spread it all over the internet, I don't have to put that disclosure on it.

- Interesting.

- I think it's fascinating.

I wonder what's gonna happen to voter trust in everything, right?

I mean, we sometimes will put out a story or something, someone will say, "Oh, that's got to be AI", and it's real, because people are in this world now where they don't know what's real.

And you can have something that looks... And it's only gonna get better, right?

So people, you know, whether it's a photograph, video footage even words that can be created pretty fast that sound compelling at first, then you realize this has the classic claudisms that I would expect that tell me this is AI.

I don't know.

I thought, I really enjoyed Antonio's story because I think I hadn't even thought through how the deep, when we talked about the deep fake law at the time when it was being debated, I was thinking more of like video where Seth Magaziner says like, I don't know, like I, you know- - [Jim] I love Trump.

- I love Trump.

Exactly.

Something where it's like super fake.

This was more- - It's nuanced.

- It's a little more nuanced than I though.

You know, we have had animations in ads for years, things like that.

So it's cliche, but it's kind of a brave new world.

- Yeah, it is, it's uncharged territory, and it's basically a kind of cheaper way to do what you could have done in attack ad, I'd say by hiring an actor.

- [Jim] Vic Miller says that.

Why would I hire all these people?

- Yeah, exactly.

- Yeah.

- You know, I also find it interesting that with the with the law, I mean, it's always this case.

The law is nowhere near keeping up with the technology.

So they're gonna have to probably tweak it.

But there are other situations like, you know, we've had Photoshopping over the years.

I think of John Goncalves in Providence.

He got in a bit of hot water with the whole, they had him next to AOC, right?

And it looked like an endorsement.

- And I think it was a real picture.

- It was, yeah.

- With them, it just wasn't on an endorsement.

He just rushed- - So that wasn't Photoshop.

It was out of context.

- Exactly.

Which I think that's happened in politics before too, right?

I think with, with AI, like, the downside is It's easy to make slop, as so many people say.

And I had a general manager many years ago when, at Channel 12 say to me, I'd be looking at, you know, who was buying the most ad time.

And he'd say, "Just remember, Ted, it's not just how much time you buy.

What are you showing?

Is the ad good or not?

Does it break through to people?"

And we've all seen people do big ad buys that didn't move the needle with voters because the ads weren't good.

So, you know, if you use AI to make an amazing ad that everyone's interested in and it affects them, great.

You could also use the AI and people just like, "That was kind of a lousy ad.

Maybe a human would've made a better ad."

- Are you surprised we haven't seen more of this?

- You know, I think it is still, I think campaigns are being a little bit cautious still, which I think is part of why you're seeing this more coming from the general public and just people who have opinions, because it does turn off some people definitely, either because it looks so generic to have some of this AI imagery, or in some cases, you know, people have environmental, ethical concerns about the use of AI.

So I think we don't really know yet how that plays with voters.

I do think what's interesting is it can be also kind of a way of leveling the playing field though, right?

Like if you are a small budget down ballot candidate, you can't afford to hire a graphic designer.

You know, I might roll my eyes at these generic flyers and graphics they're doing, but for them, it can really be a way to get their message out there for less money.

So I think I've been noticing more down ballot.

- I do wonder too if it's generational.

I mean, any new technology is taken up more by younger people first.

I mean, look at Ed Markey's foggy answer in that debate last week when he was asked about what AI he's using.

"I use whatever pops up on my iPhone."

Like just clearly not really deeply engaged in the new technologies that are coming around.

- Doesn't seem to be eating into his lead though, does it?

- No, it's not.

He's gonna be fine.

He'll be there at least till he's 86.

But, you know, so I wonder about that too.

I mean, I think of, you know, I remember when I was in high school and they were telling us, "Don't Google.

That's bad, you know, it's not how you check things."

I mean, I think academics are Googling now.

So, you know, I think once again, this is probably gonna be a technology... It's not gonna go away.

So I think it's gonna get embedded.

Hopefully we all learn how to use it in a sophisticated way.

We have guardrails where we need it, it's not gonna be used more and more and more.

- But you think at some point it's probably gonna wind up back at the legislature, but what would they do to tighten up?

And they, to me, government always takes the path of least resistance.

You know, oh, we don't wanna get involved.

So, and I think that's one of the reasons why they said go to court rather than the elections board, because I'm sure there was somebody from the elections board whispering to whoever sponsored that, "We don't need any more work."

But don't you think the law's gonna have to evolve?

- Yeah, but I would not want to be the one to police it because that... How do you do that?

I mean, even- - [Jim] Then it gets into free speech.

- Yeah, well, also, I mean, how do you know if something is AI?

If they say, "No, it's not", right?

How do you prove that?

And how do you go.

I mean, we... One example I mentioned in the story is when we ran some candidates' responses through different AI detectors, the rates were so far off.

Like one was saying like this is 7%.

The other was saying it's 75%, so.

- It's like you as a professor now, you work adjunct.

You have to run... Well, it used to be, wasn't it years ago for the plagiarism?

It was the whatever that program you put in, you know, grade my paper, whatever.

Now it's AI you have to worry about.

- I mean, you know, this, of course, as I get older and I'm an ancient broadcast guy at this point, right?

But I like to think part of the backlashes is gonna be, there's gonna be even more emphasis placed on humans who can show like, I really think the thing that I published today because I can talk about it organically or I'm not just an AI ad on your commercial.

If you meet me in person and you actually like me.

I do wonder if that's going to be at more of a premium because it is just getting ever easier to make more and more slop on the computer for people.

And they're gonna say, "Well, where's the person behind this?

Who are you?

Okay, what do you actually like when I talk to you?"

- Developers of the so-called Superman building in downtown Providence got more financial assistance this week when the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation approved another $10 million in state tax breaks.

But will this put the project over the finish line?

How many times have we asked that question, Ted?

- Yeah, well, I mean, as we were talking when you were preparing the show, Jim, you do wonder.

I had people saying to me this week, should we be pouring more money into this?

Do we need to think about whether we have to have this building and what is an appropriate level of public money to go into this project?

Again, there's no sign of wavering, I think, so far by state or city leaders.

It's we're gonna give the developer what they need.

Hopefully they get this federal loan.

And look, I think it's tough.

That is an iconic part of the skyline.

And if you could turn it into something, you know, housing, we do need housing in Rhode Island.

But boy, we're talking about a lot of money at this point.

- Yeah, it does feel kind of like throw money into a bottomless pit.

I also wonder if you don't at some point fix it up, it has to be torn down.

How much does that cost?

Because that'd be a huge nightmare in the middle of downtown.

But I will say my colleague Patrick Anderson pointed out it's interesting also as we get right up to primary day how all of these projects suddenly are moving.

There was this Apex building in Pawtucket.

- Oh, we're doing something.

- Exactly.

- Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Just the timing is always interesting.

- Yeah, Patrick, I saw Patrick's tweet on that and I was like, this is a very good point that all of sudden the Apex thing is moving, Superman's back on track.

- But you think of how long it's been going, and of course the, the original owner died, Sweetser.

- [Ted] It's been empty for 13 years now.

- It's unbelievable.

- I mean, it is unbelievable.

And, you know, I think it is also a story about the change to downtown Providence where there was never gonna to be seemingly any kind of office occupant that wanted a big building like the Industrial Trust Company did in 1927.

But, you know, to turn these office buildings into housing, it seems so obvious.

Like we need as many apartments as we can get in Providence, there's an empty building, but the floor plans aren't right and it's, you know, it needs all this mitigation.

It's no small project.

- Yeah.

And I also saw when they came out with the breakdown of what it would be, this was a story at least a year ago, what the market value was gonna be and what the affordable.

The affordable didn't really sound that affordable.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

And by the way, there are so many office buildings right now in Providence that are underutilized or have a lot of capacity that could be made into apartments right now.

So it's hard to really make a case for this specific one.

- It's a part of the housing crunch that we don't talk about as much, which is the mismatch between how we're using already developed land and buildings for an older economy that doesn't need as much physical space for office type space.

And yet to get, it sounds easy like, oh, well, put that building, make that apartments.

But make that apartments involves money, it involves all sorts of projects, not a lot of capital around.

Rents are high, yet not necessarily high enough to cover the cost of these projects.

It's a real conundrum.

- Well, and that was part of the former Speaker Joe Shekarchi's package of bills, the 8,000 bills that he put in, was they originally, some of the communities chafed at having to put together an inventory because they thought state was gonna move in.

But hey, if you have an old school or you have something in a community that's got sewer, it's zoned, it's got good bones, use that.

- And in fact, Foster's selling their library right now to anyone who wants to buy it to move in and then turn it into a house.

- You thinking about Foster?

It'd be a long commute, wouldn't it?

- Yeah, and we've all had friends, I'm sure, who lived in the old mills in Pawtucket.

- [Jim] In Pawtucket, those are great.

- Those are beautiful apartment buildings.

- Amazing.

- But not cheap.

- And you're starting with good, right.

And that's always been the rub in Rhode Island, is that the cost of doing business, prevailing wage, union labor, all of that, whether you agree with that or not, that's the reality.

- Well, and I remember talking to a developer number of years ago who said, "The problem is we are in a combined market with Boston for the cost of labor, for the cost of materials, but we're not in a combined market with Boston for rents."

So that's part of why often these projects, it's really hard to get them to pencil out because you're paying regional costs on Providence rents, which feel and are high to Providence residents.

But for the developer looking at how much it costs to compete with Boston for what you need to build things, it's not enough.

- Okay.

Let's go to outrages and/or kudos.

Antonio, let's begin with you this week.

- I'm going to give my kudos to the Newport Harbormaster's office for this really crazy story yesterday where essentially there was a stolen boat that was stolen out of a marina in New Jersey.

There was a BOLO put out all up and down the East Coast.

Newport Harbormaster yesterday was out around 8:45, just patrolling.

- Patrolling.

- And spotted the boat and called police.

- There's a thousand boats in Newport Harbor, and you found that- - This is a distinctive one, but still.

- It is?

Like a cigarette boat or is it a?

- A 1968 Hinkley, a pretty beautiful vintage boat.

- Oh, oh, beautiful.

- But still, you know, I mean, obviously, this boat had made the journey there from New Jersey.

No one else had spot along the way, so huge kudos to Newport Harbormaster's office for spotting that.

Unfortunately, it did kind of take a tragic turn where there was a shootout with police.

The person on the boat was killed.

An officer was hurt.

And the Harbormaster members of the office, by the way, were on the boat, which I don't think when you get into that job patrolling the harbor, you expect to be in a shootout with an armed suspect.

- Can you imagine?

I've been in that harbor so many times.

And it's usually people are on vacation, it's peaceful, and you got to dodge the occasional cruise ship.

All of a sudden, like a Western is breaking out in front of you.

- Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So really tense situation.

So huge kudos to them for that.

- And so are those harbormasters, are they under the police department?

- I believe they're technically their own office.

Because in a lot of towns, yeah, they'll be- - [Jim] And then they call the police in.

Wow, that's crazy.

What do you have.

Ted?

- I have an outrage.

If one more campaign calls me, whining that the reporters haven't written X, Y, Z negative thing about their opponent, and then I always say, "I have an idea.

Put out a press release about it if you think this is such a big deal."

- Oh, I can't do that because then people might think I'm mean and da, da, da.

Well, you know what?

The primary's two weeks away.

If you have a valid criticism of your opponent you think the public should know.

- Toughen up.

- Yeah, toughen up a little bit.

- My irritation, I wasn't going to say this.

I've been getting more texts about Peter Narona endorsing people and, "Oh, we're having a town hall," which I say, you know, "Report, delete as spam."

They called me the other day.

I picked it up, and I always just do this to play around with them.

I usually answer the phone and I say, "Hi, is Bob there?"

That totally confuses people.

And so it said, "Hi, we're about to start our town hall with Peter Narona."

I'm like, "Did you not get the memo?"

That's a whole nother conversation.

Are you getting those too?

- I'm getting lots of spam texts.

That is just one of many.

- I think everybody is, yeah.

- Yeah.

It's awful.

All right.

Ted and Antonia, thank you.

Looking forward to the sprint to primary day.

- Yes, that's right.

- It'll be great.

- Thank you.

- Thank you for joining us.

Be sure and check us out on Facebook, X, Instagram, and on the Ocean State Media YouTube channel and wherever you get your favorite podcast.

We'll see you next time right here on "Lively."

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