Governor Paul Cellucci passed away this afternoon at the age of 65, succumbing to ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He served in both chambers of the General Court befor being elected Lt. Governor in 1990. He was re-elected in 1994 and became Acting Governor in 1997 when Governor Weld resigned to fight for the Ambassadorship to Mexico which he ultimately didn’t get. Cellucci was elected Governor in his own right in 1998, but himself resigned in 2001 to take the Ambassadorship to our other immediate neighbor resulting in Jane Swift being the only woman to act as our executive for an extended time (though still no woman has actually been Governor).
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He was the state senator in my district when I first moved here in the 80s. He was accessible and responsive – everything you would want in a representative. Unlike many in the profession, he gave politicians a good name.
He was a Republican who lived up to Tip O’Neil’s mantra that all politics is local. He never forgot where he came from, he worked across the aisle within the legislature, with Mayors, and did a decent job as Ambassador (war lobbying aside). I remember when I was 8 or 9 at summer camp we toured the State House, which was thrilling to me as a student of government even if it bored the other kids. When we walked past him in the hallway he greeted us and asked a staffer to “get those kids some pens”, later when we were walking back down the stairs he ran after our group with the pens and passed them out. A small act of kindness I haven’t forgot.
I think Argeo Paul always sought to do things for the right reasons, even if some disagreement here may exist about whether he was using to the best means to his goals. It’s a statement about the modern Republican Party that we hold up people such as Celucci wistfully mainly because they weren’t actively trying to remove all value and strength in the country for the enjoyment of a narrow class of the rich. I think Celucci wanted the average person in the Bay State to have a better life, and not just by hoping that a rich neighbor would trickle down on/to them any excess wealth.
More like him please among the elephants.
I may not have agreed with all of his political positions, but I strongly believe he did what he did because he thought it would help average citizens. He was a people person in the best sense of the word. He enjoyed interacting with constituents because he cared about them, not just calculating who could help him and how.