overnor Paul Cellucci yesterday refused to commit to serving out his four-year term, leaving the door open to acceptance of a federal appointment if Republican hopeful George W. Bush becomes president.
Cellucci, who will be in New Hampshire to campaign for Bush next week, promised to devote most of his time as governor to Massachusetts business during the presidential race even if Bush wins the GOP nomination.
But the governor, clearly excited by the prospect, also said he has informed Bush operatives that he stands ready to help in a national campaign - especially with fund-raising and wooing Italian-Americans across the country.
''I will be available if needed,'' Cellucci said, noting that he is the nation's only sitting Italian-American governor. ''I go back a long way with the Bush family, as you know. I think they're the best we have in America.''
Cellucci made the remarks during a State House interview with the Globe while seated near a portrait of the late John A. Volpe, a Republican Italian-American governor named by former President Richard M. Nixon to be secretary of transportation and, later, ambassador to Italy.
Cellucci called Volpe ''a hero'' and, pressed on several occasions, refused to rule out following in Volpe's footsteps to Washington if Bush is elected president. ''I'm not going to talk about it,'' he said. ''I'm not going to talk about it at this time.''
Cellucci was Massachusetts coordinator for former President Bush's 1988 campaign, and already, he has awed fund-raising experts by generating more than $1.5 million from Massachusetts donors for the president's son. ''He's the kind of Republican who can win the White House and who can lead this nation,'' Cellucci said.
Whether or not Bush becomes the nominee, Cellucci plans to spend much of his time campaigning next year, as he and Lieutenant Governor Jane Swift push a ballot initiative that would reduce the state income tax from 5.85 percent to 5 percent.
''The tax cut is going to be the primary focus for Jane Swift and I,'' Cellucci said.
Cellucci, who recently declared he would adopt an ''outside the State House'' populist strategy designed to elevate him above legislative battles, said his other priorities for the coming year include increasing accountability for education spending, and searching for ways to ease the housing crisis in Boston and other communities.
Cellucci hinted that his push for greater accountability under the Education Reform Act, which has raised state aid to local schools from $1.5 billion to $3.5 billion over the past seven years, will emphasize boosting student test scores and, perhaps, a renewed push for more teacher testing.
The governor also indicated that any administration program designed to make housing more readily available would be directed at incentives for new construction. The administration has been criticized by some advocates for neglecting the the housing problem.
''I'm not a fan of huge subsidies and I'm not a fan of rent control,'' Cellucci said.
Pressed for specifics, Cellucci said he would provide them next month, in his State of the State address and his budget proposal for the coming fiscal year.
But he called voter approval of the income tax cut his number one goal for the year.
Cellucci said that, working with Swift and the organization Citizens for Limited Taxation, he would base his campaign on four arguments, saying an income tax rollback would:
Make Massachusetts more competitive with other industrialized states participating in the global economy.
Impose fiscal discipline on the state L egislature by ''taking money off the table.''
Provide an average of $600 of additional income to the average Massachusetts family.
Keep a ''promise'' made during the fiscal crisis of the early '90s to return the income tax rate to 5 percent.
''I believe there's strong support for it among the citizens of the state,'' Cellucci said of the tax rollback proposal. ''We're going to spend a lot of time reinforcing that.''
But Cellucci's assertion is contradicted by a recent Mass Insight poll taken for the state Republican Party, which showed that most voters, when given a choice, prefer more state spending on specific programs over a tax cut.
According to the poll, only 18 percent favor a tax cut while 23 percent support increased funding for highways and other public building projects and 55 percent prefer more state spending on education, child care, and health care.
When asked about the poll, Cellucci said he will remind voters that state spending on education has increased dramatically even though a variety of state taxes have been cut.
''It's a false choice,'' he said. ''People will say that you can't improve education if you have tax cuts, but I would suggest that people just look at what we've done over the last seven years.''
When asked to cite his most important accomplishment of the past year, Cellucci cited the confirmation battle to have Margaret H. Marshall named chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court.
The nomination was opposed by antiabortion groups and was initially questioned by Cardinal Bernard Law. But the Governors Council approved Marshall on a 6-3 vote.
''That was an historic day for Massachusetts,'' Cellucci said. ''It's the first time a woman has headed a branch of state government.''
