McKay is Leading Candidate for Appointment to Federal Judgeship in RI
Monday, January 30, 2017
Ken McKay, former top staffer to Governor Donald Carcieri and top advisor to President Donald Trump's super PAC, Rebuilding America Now. is the leading candidate for the RI federal judge vacancy.
McKay has worked for a "who’s who" of top level Republicans. GoLocal has learned that the vetting process has begun and that calls are being made in the selection process, according to sources in the GOP both in Rhode Island and in Washington, D.C.
About McKay
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTHe was chief strategist to Florida Governor Rick Scott in 2010 and then jumped to U.S. Senator Ron Johnson’s (R-WI) team in 2010. He also served as the chair of the Rhode Island GOP in 2011.
In 2016, McKay ran Chris Christie’s ill-fated campaign for President.
One of the political highlights of Christie’s campaign was his relentless attack on U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL).
McKay was quoted by Daily Caller, "I think what Marco’s afraid of is when that stage gets smaller — [when] there’s three or four people on that stage — he does poorly, especially against someone like Christie."
In a 2011 interview, McKay told GoLocal about something that no one knew about him.
"I once tried to start a charity to help fund North Korean refugees trapped in China. China violates two treaties by classifying North Korean refugees who escape their as economic migrants and return them to North Korea for prison, torture and in many cases -- execution. Meanwhile, the United States looks the other way. We are letting our largest trading partner send freedom seekers back to a country we have been at "conflict" with since the 50's. Those who contact Christians in China are most apt to be executed. One group labeled North Korea as the worst persecutor of Christians in the world. You would think it would be somewhere in the Middle East. Not so, it is North Korea with China's help."
Presidential Politics
By February, Christie was out of the race and shortly thereafter, the New Jersey Governor was endorsing Trump.
The federal judgeship, previously held by Mary Lisi, has been vacant since October of 2015.
Under President Barack Obama, Mary McElroy was appointed to Lisi’s slot, but was never confirmed.
McElroy is the daughter of long-time Rhode Island and Washington, D.C. labor leader Ed McElroy. She was the the head of the public defenders office and was appointed to that position in 2012 by then-Governor Lincoln Chafee.
Related Slideshow: Trump Rally in Warwick Rhode Island, April, 2016
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