Gov. Dan McKee won the top spot on the Sept. 9 Democratic primary ballot in a lottery conducted at the Rhode Island Department of State’s Elections Division in Providence Friday, a welcome stroke of luck for a reelection campaign that has weathered some setbacks.
The first place on the ballot is usually reserved for the party-endorsed candidate. But ballot placement was at the mercy of a retired Rhode Island Lottery ball machine now owned by the Department of State. That’s because the state’s Democratic Party declined to endorse either McKee or his main rival, Helena Bounanno Foulkes, at its convention on June 20.
McKee became the first sitting governor in recent history to not win his party’s endorsement. He also missed out on an influential endorsement from the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, which declined to back a Democratic governor candidate on Wednesday…