Coach Dan McKee is asking for a contract extension he hasn’t earned – The Boston Globe

Not even the Rhode Island Democratic Party could find space in its “Monday Messaging” newsletter to mention the governor, and Chairwoman Liz Beretta Perik wouldn’t say whether she supports the incumbent for reelection.

This is what you call a slow start.

McKee likes to refer to himself as the coach of Rhode Island, a nod to his days as a successful youth basketball coach. But as governor, he seems to be the last person to recognize that he’s increasingly losing the locker room.

A poll from the AFL-CIO released last week found that just 29 percent of Rhode Island voters believe the state is heading in the right direction. Even among Democrats, only 42 percent believe the state is moving in the right direction.

The Civic Health and Institutions Project, which has been tracking executive approval in every state since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, had McKee’s approval rating at 24 percent in October and then 27 percent in January.

McKee’s low approval rating coupled with blunders like the failure of the westbound side of the Washington Bridge, and a messy education consulting contract the governor awarded at the beginning of his administration had led many pundits and ambitious politicians to speculate that he might not seek reelection.

We already know that Helena Foulkes, who lost in a Democratic primary to McKee in 2022 by 3 percentage points, is definitely running again next year.

And House Speaker Joe Shekarchi, Secretary of State Gregg Amore, and Attorney General Peter Neronha have all flirted with the idea of jumping in the race. Shekarchi and Amore have said they won’t run if McKee’s name is on the ballot; Neronha seemed more destined to run for lieutenant governor, but he has a skip in his step this year since he started becoming one of the leading Democratic voices in the country challenging President Trump’s executive actions in court.

That’s all part of the reason McKee is announcing his reelection this early, according to Joe Fleming, a longtime Rhode Island pollster.

“He feels he needs to get his message out to the voters early, and not just hear the negative,” said Fleming, who conducted the AFL-CIO poll.

While tempers have begun to fade around the Washington Bridge, McKee’s handling of the situation in the first three months after its closure in December 2023 seems like a gift to Foulkes’ TV ad makers.

He bristled at questions, fought with reporters, and repeatedly gave wrong information about the status of the bridge. To date, no one at the state Department of Transportation has lost their job, and McKee has never apologized for the inconvenience caused to Rhode Islanders. There is still no timeline for when a new bridge for this primary artery into and out of Providence will be in place.

But it’s not just the bridge Rhode Islanders should be concerned about.

Where McKee is needed – like helping to save the state’s fragile health care system – he comes across as disinterested.

Where McKee’s voice could be useful – like challenging a president with an autocratic fetish – he’s disengaged.

Where McKee could have a direct impact – like righting the ship on the state takeover of Providence schools, the results have been disappointing.

So what has Coach McKee done to earn a contract extension?

McKee’s theory is that he has put Rhode Island in a better position than when he took over at the peak of the pandemic. He argues that he helped reopen the economy and he prioritized school attendance to begin improving student outcomes.

He has released a plan called Rhode Island 2030 that lays out a series of goals for the state by the time he leaves office, including catching Massachusetts in student test scores and raising average incomes by $20,000.

The question is whether McKee deserves a chance to meet those goals, and that’s difficult to justify.

McKee has repeatedly proven that he’s too small to meet the moment, that he doesn’t have the network or resources to combat the challenges ahead, and that he lacks the creativity to build a more innovative state.

On top of the state’s existing challenges, Rhode Island could soon face unimaginable disruption, with a combination of devastating cuts in federal aid (in the short term) and artificial intelligence (in the coming years) that are threatening to upend everything about the economy.

With those odds, even the most forgiving fans would be looking for a new coach.

Dan McGowan can be reached at dan.mcgowan@globe.com. Follow him @danmcgowan.