Giuliani Touts His Succession by Bloomberg
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

BOSTON – In the battle over who is the better Republican, Mayor Giuliani is pointing to a new credential: his replacement by a fellow Republican, Mayor Bloomberg, in contrast to the succession of Mitt Romney by a Democrat, Deval Patrick.
“I would make the point that I was succeeded by a Republican mayor and that I had two terms as mayor of New York City,” Mr. Giuliani said. “I got reelected as a Republican in a Democratic city… It’s real hard to get reelected to a Democratic city or state. I think it’s even more a statement on the kind of job you did to get reelected.”
Mr. Giuliani, flanked by two architects of GOP growth in Massachusetts, a former governor, Paul Cellucci, and a former state treasurer, Joseph Malone, trumpeted his success as a Republican in a Democratic city. Mr. Malone, a former chairman of the state party who once challenged Ted Kennedy in a Senate race, is credited with helping to build a grassroots Republican Party in Massachusetts along Reaganite grounds.
Mr. Cellucci defeated Mr. Malone in a 1998 nomination battle, but the men united after a Boston fundraiser to support Mr. Giuliani. While neither had much to say about Mitt Romney, who is emerging as Mr. Giuliani’s toughest rival for the nomination, their presence together demonstrated the distance of Mr. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, from the local Republican establishment.
Speaking after the press conference, Mr. Cellucci acknowledged that it was hard to be a Republican in Massachusetts. “It’s just tough here in this state, it’s a Democratic state,” Mr. Cellucci said.
Still, he faulted Mr. Romney for failing to follow the success he had in getting passed a referendum question on a statewide income tax rollback. “I put that referendum on the ballot because I thought it would help Republican candidates,” Mr. Cellucci said. “We got it down
From 5.5 to 5.3 [%] and Mitt was unable to get it down to five, I might add.”
Mr. Romney did refuse to knuckle to Democratic pressure to increase the income tax in the state.
A spokesman for Mr. Romney, Eric Fehrnstrom, suggested the Massachusetts Republicans’ nod to Mr. Giuliani stems from a shared stance on abortion.
“The great thing about America is that people are free to endorse whoever they want. We all like and respect Joe Malone and Paul Cellucci, but they are both pro-choice and no one should be surprised that they have endorsed Rudy Giuliani, who is also pro-choice,” Mr. Fehrnstrom, Mr. Malone’s former director of communications, said.
He added: “Rudy Giuliani left his successor a budget deficit. That’s probably one of the reasons Mayor Bloomberg un-enrolled as a Republican. By contrast, Mitt Romney left his successor a $2.2 billion rainy day fund, and a budget that ended the year with a surplus.”
The Giuliani campaign points to a New York State Financial Control Board staff report as backing up the assertion that Mr. Giuliani left office with a balanced budget and.
A Massachusetts state senator who is one of the handful of Republicans in the legislature and a sponsor of the fundraising event, Richard Tisei, faulted Mr. Romney for his failure to strengthen the Republican Party in Massachusetts.
“I think a lot of people in the state definitely feel abandoned,” Mr. Tisei told the Sun. “Governor Romney spent three out of the four years out of his governorship out of state running for president and consistently out of state.”
Mr. Tisei contrasted the records of Messrs. Giuliani and Romney, who spent much of the second half of his term on the campaign trail, in their home jurisdictions. “The fact is that he did everything he did in New York and then was replaced by a Republican as opposed to governor Romney here. His handpicked lieutenant governor got killed in the election.”
The event, held at an Italian restaurant, Umbria, had something of an ethnic flair. Both Messrs. Cellucci and Malone are prominent Italian American political figures.
In baseball-crazed Boston, Mr. Giuliani, a die-hard Yankees fan who often wears a Navy Yankees jacket to games, said he was backing the Boston Red Sox to win the World Series.
“I’m rooting for the Red Sox in the World Series. I’m not saying that just because I’m in Massachusetts,” Mr. Giuliani said in comments likely to reverberate over the airwaves in New Hampshire, a center of fanatical Red Sox support. “I’m an American League fan. I go with the
American League team maybe with the exception of the Mets because of my loyalty to New York.”
Mr. Giuliani’s comments contrast a slogan often seen on T-shirts throughout New England: “My favorite team is the Red Sox … and whoever is playing the Yankees.”
In that spirit, Mr. Fehrnstrom said, “If Colorado wants Mayor Giuliani to root for the Rockies, they’re going to have to move their primary up.”
Later in the day, Mr. Giuliani appeared at a town meeting in Concord and filed his candidacy papers with New Hampshire’s secretary of state, William Gardner.