- Ted, it's nice to see you.

Let's start by breaking down this new poll of Rhode Island voters that was commissioned by the state AFL-CIO.

We should note, even though the survey was paid for by union leaders, it was conducted by someone who you know very well, who is reputable.

- Yes, Joe Fleming of Fleming and Associates up in Cumberland.

He's been doing polls for Channel 12 for over 40 years now, and the union hired him, as you said.

They did choose the questions, of course, but Joe kinda of elected the survey data from voters in the independent way that he always does.

- One of the questions that sticks out to me is what's often called the right track, wrong track question.

Nearly half of Rhode Island voters, 48%, say the state is going in the wrong direction.

Meanwhile, only 29% say the state is moving in the right direction.

I don't think Rhode Island state officials wanna hear this.

- No, though they might be a little used to hearing this, actually, Michelle.

It is a great question because you can track voters' shifting moods over time with this when you look at how the answer evolves across polls they do at the national level too.

So I have 15 years of Joe Fleming data, 17 different polls where he's asked this question all the way back to 2010, and I only saw one poll in that collection, Michelle, where more Rhode Islanders said the state was in the right direction than the wrong direction.

So this negativity is not a new phenomenon, but I will say, this finding was a little more negative than we'd seen in recent years, so we'll have to watch to see if that means people are feeling more pessimistic, if that's a growing thing, or if this was just a little bit of a blip in the data and it's sort of the same baseline kind of grumpiness we've seen in the electorate.

- But overall, there's a trend of pessimism - That you're finding.

- Absolutely.

- Okay, the union also asked about a number of policy proposals that labor leaders are pushing at the State House, and they had to be pleased with what they learned.

The poll shows 70% support for increasing the minimum wage to $20 an hour by 2030, it's currently $15 an hour, 69% support for banning smoking at the state's two casinos, 64% for a ban on assault weapons, and there was nearly unanimous support for banning cell phone use in schools.

There's obviously a reason the union is pushing these results and showing them publicly.

- Yes, they're trying to sway lawmakers to actually vote on those bills, Michelle.

Sometimes you'll hear frustrations from whether it's union leaders or business leaders or lobbyists for a different organization when they're up at the State House, who feel like state lawmakers have a perception that a certain issue is more controversial or more unpopular than the advocates really think it is.

But it's expensive to do these kind of polls, which is why you don't see it happen that often.

Clearly, the AFL-CIO felt this was a good investment in data that would help them advance their arguments as they're trying to get actual floor votes in all these issues in the House and Senate in the coming months.

- Okay, let's turn now to events in Washington, DC.

For the second time in recent weeks, tech billionaire and White House advisor Elon Musk has used social media to criticize a major Rhode Island official.

First, we saw federal Judge John McConnell being criticized for his rulings on the federal funding freeze, and now it's US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.

So what's happening between Musk and Whitehouse?

- So this all involves Senator Whitehouse's wife Sandra.

She is a marine biologist, and she's worked for many years as a consultant to various environmental groups, notably, the Ocean Conservancy.

Conservative critics of Whitehouse have long argued that there's a conflict there because Whitehouse is a major environmental advocate, he's voted for many laws that at times have created funding streams, which end up being used by the Ocean Conservancy.

So this week, a conservative group called Fact filed an ethics complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee about that issue.

Elon Musk was touting that complaint on X.

- And we should note, Senator Whitehouse has called the suggestion of a conflict of interest, "Smears."

You discovered the committee has already looked into this and dismissed it.

- Yes, and about a year ago, actually, Michelle, a different conservative group called Judicial Watch filed a similar complaint raising the same arguments.

The Ethics Committee dismissed that last August, saying they had reviewed it, they did not find any conflicts.

I also talked to a former Deputy Chief Counsel of the Congressional Ethics panel who said that, generally, lawmakers can vote on these kinds of bills, even if it benefits their spouse if it's broad.

So we'll have to see if Whitehouse's critics are satisfied by that.

- Thank you, Ted.

- Good to be here.