- Ted, welcome back.

I want to talk in a moment about what was a very quiet presidential primary here in Rhode Island.

But first, let's start with the latest change of plans surrounding the Washington Bridge.

- It does feel like almost every time we sit down here, Michelle, there's been another development in the Washington Bridge saga, and this week was no different.

- So Governor Dan McKee has promised this day of reckoning that he's talked about, that look, business owners who are affected by the shutdown want to see happen.

Of course, people who have been inconvenienced by the closure are also waiting for, but this day of reckoning will have to wait, because the governor's office has said that the consultants who are conducting this forensic analysis of the bridge need more time to do their work.

Meanwhile, the governor's office has also said that they plan to hire an outside legal firm to, quote, "Seek financial recovery from any responsible parties."

Your colleagues at Channel 12 recently talked with the governor about that decision.

Let's take a listen.

- I just think that we're open to any possibility, but I think that if we're bringing on a legal team, we do think there's accountability that will protect the taxpayers for, you know, what's going on right now.

And so yes, we're not, we're not gonna bring on a legal team if we don't think that there's some level of cause that we can act on.

- Ted, based on that response, that sounds like the governor's office is preparing for really significant litigation over the Bridge.

Yeah, definitely something that has grown in its potential importance, I'd say, since this crisis began back in December.

And the comparison I'm hearing everyone make is to the 38 Studios crisis.

I'm sure most of remember, but just to refresh memories, that was the big $75 million guarantee that Rhode Island gave for bonds for Curt Shilling's video game company, which collapsed.

And when it collapsed, Governor Lincoln Chaffee decided he would file litigation against a host of banks and lawyers and consulting firms who all had worked on the deal.

Many people were skeptical at the time, Michelle, I covered that.

And they thought, you know, "How are you gonna disentangle the state approving this from these companies?"

Chaffee was right.

He got tens of millions of dollars from that litigation.

So I assume McKee's office is hoping they could run a similar strategy here and maybe get a bunch of money to put toward rebuilding the new bridge.

- Let's turn now to the presidential primary in Rhode Island.

No surprise, Joe Biden and Donald Trump won their respective party primaries, but the turnout was so low.

Only 5% of Rhode Islanders went to cast their ballots.

- And not a shock that it was so low, Michelle, though it's, you know, it's sad from kind of a civic perspective, but at the same time, I can't really blame voters who understood that the party nominations have basically been locked up by Joe Biden and Donald Trump already, and so many people have other things going on.

They didn't see a reason to troop to the polls, but it is interesting.

You know, the state made a change, people might remember, as late as 2008, Rhode Island voted on Super Tuesday in March, with Massachusetts.

And in 2008, Rhode Island was a bit of a battleground.

Hillary Clinton really fought hard to win the state, because she was trying to hold off Barack Obama at the time.

But in 2012, state leaders decided to push back Rhode Island's presidential primary into April, partly arguing that maybe Rhode Island would have more say in the process by going on the same day as Connecticut and all that.

It hasn't really worked out that way.

I mean, in 2016, you did see Hillary, Bernie, Donald Trump all come and campaign, but it was a very unusual year.

But I tend to think this is what it's gonna be more like as long as Rhode Island has its primary in April, things generally already decided by the time Rhode Islanders get to vote.

- I know that you weren't surprised by the low voter turnout, but was there anything that did surprise you about the primary.

In case people can't tell, you are a political junky.

- (laughing) I was just gonna say, I always love when I have new election returns to look through.

I thought there was something interesting on both sides.

On the Democratic side, of course, it was the uncommitted vote, I think about 14.5% at last check of Democratic primary voters voted uncommitted.

Progressives have been pushing for that as a protest against Biden's policy on the Israel/Hamas war, and you actually got 29% of Providence voters voted uncommitted, so a pretty big protest vote there.

And then the Republican side, you can call it a protest vote too.

Nikki Haley got 10% of the vote statewide in Rhode Island.

Again, she's suspended her campaign, and we've seen that in other states too, sort of small but residual resistance to Donald Trump in his party from a small share of the GOP electorate.

- And further down the ballot, people were able to vote on delegates to send to the national conventions, which has really become a "Who's Who" of Rhode Island, some very familiar names there.

- Yeah.

And obviously, people go in with less information.

There's no TV ads for the delegate races.

I thought it was interesting on the Democratic side, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley came in number one for delegate.

No surprise, he had the highest name recognition.

But you had state Senator Sandra Cano, who ran for Congress last year, come in second, Central Falls Mayor Maria Rivera came in third.

And then on the Republican side, former state Rep. Justin Price, who has acknowledged he went to the January 6th rally, though he says he didn't go into the Capitol, he came in second as a Trump delegate.

So always interesting to see who comes out on top in those delegate fights.

- Good to see you.

Thanks for being here, Ted.

- Great to be here.

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