Rewrite this post Happy Saturday! Here’s another edition of my weekend column for WPRI.com — as always, send your takes, tips and trial balloons to tnesi@wpri.com and follow me on Twitter and on Facebook. 1. Dan McKee has now had his “Cooler & Warmer” moment. Just as with Gina Raimondo’s infamous tourism campaign, the Philadelphia trip has escaped the typical confines of Rhode Island political controversies to become a national story and a social-media punchline — culminating in a mea culpa by the governor at a Friday news conference. “I’m just going to stand here until you guys are done,” McKee told reporters as they peppered him with questions. True, the comparison between the two episodes only goes so far; the comments that now-resigned state properties director David Patten reportedly made in Philly were truly offensive, nor did Raimondo’s Iceland video spark investigations by the State Police or the Ethics Commission. Plus, McKee compounded his problems by refusing to be transparent, his lawyers instead spending nearly three months waging a losing battle against WPRI 12 and The Providence Journal to avoid releasing the email that revealed Patten’s behavior. It gave the appearance of McKee trying to protect Patten and his travel companion Jim Thorsen from scrutiny, although the governor insisted Friday he was just following protocol. “Due process can be painful. It can be slow. But it has a purpose,” McKee said. “And due process is for everyone, whether you like them or don’t.” Now both Patten and Thorsen are gone, and McKee’s team hopes they’ve brought the Philadelphia news cycles to an end. “All we can do is continue to do the work that we’re doing, admit when mistakes happen – as we have in this case – and move forward,” McKee said. 2. Still, questions linger about how exactly David Patten wound up in a position to cause Rhode Island such embarrassment in the first place. Governor McKee’s administration installed Patten in the $174,000-a-year job as Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance director in March 2022, six months after the death of Patten’s well-liked predecessor Carole Cornelison. It wasn’t his first time in a senior state position — he was a top administrator at CCRI during the mid-2010s, but he was ousted once Meghan Hughes took over as the school’s president. A separation agreement between Patten and the school papered over the reasons for his exit. Patten also has political connections: he served on the Westerly School Committee, has held leadership positions on the Westerly Democratic Town Committee, and even listed state Sens. Frank Ciccone and Dennis Algiere as job references when he applied at CCRI. (Patten and Ciccone might have crossed paths when the latter was negotiating employee contracts for the Laborers union in Westerly.) McKee acknowledged during Friday’s news conference he knew Patten through politics. “Our paths crossed multiple times,” the governor said. “There was never a sense that he was not not only professional but also was skilled.” Still, McKee said no one in his inner circle put their thumb on the scales to get Patten the DCAMM job, and a spokesperson reports he was one of eight finalists interviewed for the position. Patten’s return to state employment also appears to be another example of one hand of government not knowing what the other hand is doing — CCRI apparently never informed the McKee administration about the circumstances of Patten’s exit back in 2018. Eli Sherman, Tim White and I have more on Patten’s background here. 3. One thing that didn’t change this week: the Cranston Street Armory is still sitting empty without a clear plan for its redevelopment three months after David Patten’s ill-fated visit to Scout Ltd., the Philly company tasked with revitalizing the castle-like structure. And as our team reported Monday, internal estimates for the Armory’s upkeep as-is run as high as $35 million. Governor McKee indicated Friday he is still open to Scout’s vision for the building, emphasizing that he has shown a willingness to stick with projects he inherited from Governor Raimondo if he thinks they’re a good idea. But the governor said he won’t get behind the project until he receives a new outside analysis of Scout’s plan showing whether it’s a wise investment for taxpayers. That analysis, by the firm Jones Lang LaSalle, is expected to be done in the next few weeks. (As it happens, JLL is the same firm McKee’s administration used last year to kick the tires on the proposal to redevelop the Superman building.) 4. Nobody had more fun with the Philadelphia fiasco than Stephanie Farr, a staff writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer who filed a tongue-in-cheek rebuttal laying out her city’s counterdemands to Rhode Island. (Excerpt: “Rhode Island is neither a road nor an island. It is a state of lies and Philadelphia demands it change its name. We suggest: Notanisland, Teenytinychusetts, or Quahog.”) Some readers thought Farr’s piece suggested enough familiarity with Little Rhody to indicate direct knowledge, but in an email she told me that’s not the case. “I have never been to Rhode Island, nor have I thought about it as much as I have in the past week,” Farr said. “I enjoyed researching and learning more about the state’s unique features, from your 21 lighthouses to your beloved Nibbles Woodaway.” Her article went viral to that point that Narragansett Beer offered a special deal to anyone from the City of Brotherly Love. So what’s her takeaway? “What the responses to my column have shown is that Philadelphians and Rhode Islanders do share at least one thing in common – a good sense of humor,” Farr said. “I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well the list of demands has been received not only by Philadelphians, but by Rhode Islanders too.” 5. Another General Assembly session is in the books. Rhode Island’s 113 state lawmakers introduced over 2,600 bills this year, though less than half of those (1,134) actually passed in their respective chambers. It’s a little more complicated to summarize how many bills will truly create new laws, though. In Rhode Island, every bill must pass both the House and Senate to get to the governor’s desk, and many of them are identical twin “matching” bills which only create one new law but allow a sponsor in each chamber to claim credit. Still, it’s safe to say well over 200 unique pieces of legislation are now headed for the statute books, barring a veto. For full end-of-session roundups, check out the summaries put together by The Providence Journal, The Boston Globe and the new Rhode Island Current. As always, it’s also noteworthy where the lawmakers couldn’t reach consensus — notably on overhauling the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, an ostensible priority since the George Floyd protests that has failed to become law yet again. And Governor McKee is facing calls from his allies among the state’s mayors to veto a bill that would give tax-free pensions to firefighters with hypertension. 6. Nobody saw Jim Langevin’s retirement coming last year. Nobody saw David Cicilline’s retirement coming this year. So political observers can be forgiven if they’re on guard for a surprise retirement by Jack Reed before the 2026 election, too. Reed is only 73 and has good reason to stay — he’ll soon be the fourth-longest-serving Democrat in a chamber that rewards seniority. (Once Dianne Feinstein is gone, only Patty Murray, Ron Wyden and Dick Durbin will outrank Reed.) Asked about his plans on this week’s Newsmakers, Reed said, “I prepare every day to run. That’s why I go out, et cetera. But I have to get through a presidential election, I have to get through congressional elections this cycle, and that’s my focus — get the president re-elected, retain the Senate for my colleagues who are talented, talented people, and then hopefully pick up the House, and we very well might.” 7. The first ballots in the 1st Congressional District primary will be cast just 60 days from now, but the campaign is still struggling to get altitude. Sabina Matos released a poll showing her at 22%, a relatively low number that was still enough to give her a double-digit lead in such a crowded field. The other campaigns know Matos is setting the pace yet appear afraid of attacking her and appearing negative, though Don Carlson dipped his toe in the water Wednesday by linking her to the David Patten affair. (She issued a statement condemning Patten’s behavior the same day.) Nick Autiello won some headlines by being the first candidate to air a TV ad, though it’s a small one-week buy before he goes dark. Aaron Regunberg announced the first union endorsement in the race, from the lefty-friendly Communications Works of America Local 1400; it remains to be seen how many of Rhode Island labor’s heavy hitters will weigh in with primary endorsements. Regunberg also followed Rhode Island tradition by mailing a classic “mother T” letter introducing himself to likely voters. As expected, Sandra Cano picked…