- Ted, welcome back, it's good to see you.

The latest campaign finance reports were recently filed and it's already prompting all kinds of speculation about the race for governor.

Now, viewers might be saying, "That race "is more than a year and a half away, "why are you talking about that?"

But I know that you feel passionately about why we should be discussing this right now.

- Yeah, and not just my innate love of politics all year round, right Michelle?

- Which you do.

- I do, I do.

I'm not gonna deny it, but there's this great concept in political science and it's called the invisible primary.

And it's the idea that in the year before the actual election year, there's all this stuff happening behind the scenes that sets the table for the choices voters eventually face when the big public campaign happens.

So that's things like, who are influential people in organizations supporting?

What kind of money are the potential candidates raising?

Who decides to get in, who decides to get out?

All those kind of things so that stuff's happening right now and it's something to watch leading into the election year itself.

- You mentioned fundraising, so let's get into those numbers.

The latest reports show Governor Dan McKee finished last year with about $550,000 in his campaign account.

Meanwhile, his likely challenger, the former CVS executive Helena Foulkes, had almost twice as much, just over $1 million.

What do those numbers say to you at this point?

- Well, it tells me Foulkes is 90, 95% certain to run again in the Democratic primary.

And people should remember that Foulkes nearly defeated Dan McKee in the 2022 Democratic primary after a late surge she had after some good debate performances.

I think McKee's team is well aware of that.

They know that certainly, if Foulkes is running again, she's gonna have a lot of money and that's something we need to be prepared for.

But we've already seen them in a sign, I think, of how seriously they're taking her, criticizing her, for example, for that CVS lawsuit the feds have brought over how they handled opioids.

And at the same time, Michelle, McKee's team, there's another thing happening in this invisible primary, which is McKee's team trying to convince insiders in Rhode Island politics that he is definitely running.

There's still this undercurrent of people wondering, you know, is he really going through with it?

Is he really gonna seek another term?

And that's part of why you hear the name Joe Shekarchi come up frequently because people think if McKee were to not run the House Speaker would jump into the race.

- So you mentioned that lawsuit against CVS.

Arguably, that is the biggest vulnerability that Helena Foulkes faces.

Now, you and your colleague Tim White, recently had Attorney General Peter Neronha on Channel 12's Newsmakers, we should remind viewers that Neronha is very much an ally of Helena Foulkes.

So it was telling what he had to say about her.

Let's take a listen to a portion of that.

- [Tim] Helena Foulkes was the head of CVS retail starting in 2014, how much responsibility does she bear, in your view?

- Yeah, it's hard for me to assign responsibility to individual CVS leadership, but Helena Foulkes has to answer that question.

Look, when I read the federal complaint, as I have, because obviously I'm concerned about those allegations...

I think we're gonna have to wait and see how the evidence comes out in that lawsuit.

But I think, Helena knows she has to answer those questions and convince the public that she did what she could.

- And Ted, if Helena Foulkes' own allies are saying that, I would imagine that's problematic for her this early into the election cycle?

- Yes, I mean, it reinforces why McKee's team is already so early in the process speaking out about... to draw attention to that lawsuit.

We also don't know...

I mean, the process of that suit is just getting started.

It was only announced in December.

So we don't know what documents will come out, emails, will she be deposed?

It could be that it's something she can get through, but I think there's a lot of uncertainty there and everyone thinks that it could be a vulnerability.

- Just to go back to Neronha, he is another name that we keep hearing, potentially running for governor, lieutenant governor.

He hasn't said yea or nay.

- Yeah, and I think it's fascinating because Neronha, what he really wants, Michelle, is to run for a third term as Attorney General, but he's not allowed to do that because of term limits.

So I think he's trying to figure out, do I want to go for a different job?

I think he's basically made clear what he doesn't want is for McKee to be reelected.

So if that means supporting Helena Foulkes, he's gonna do that, if it means supporting someone else, if it means running himself, but I don't see him running in a crowded field with others 'cause he thinks that would help McKee, which is why it's so interesting this idea, he might try to run for Lieutenant Governor against incumbent Democrat, Sabina Matos, maybe on a quasi ticket with a Helena Foulkes, or even maybe Shekarchi, depending on how things roll out.

So Neronha definitely is somebody to keep watching.

- And as you mentioned, Neronha is the only state general officer who is barred by term limits from seeking another... from seeking office as Attorney General.

So that race will be interesting to watch to see who runs for AG.

- Yes, that'll be an open seat for Attorney General next year, Michelle.

And people should remember, Neronha was such a strong candidate when he first ran in 2018, he cleared the field, it really wasn't competitive.

So this could be the first competitive race for Attorney General we have in Rhode Island since all the way back in 2010.

So that's another one I'm watching pretty closely, - A lot to watch.

- I'm excited.

- You sleep.

- Yeah, I don't sleep, I just do politics.

- Thanks so much, Ted.

- Thanks Michelle.