Combating whispers that he is a lame duck or a weakened political figure who is easy prey next election, Governor Paul Cellucci is taking the extraordinary step of challenging rumored Democratic gubernatorial candidates to debate him one-on-one.
Cellucci sent the challenges in writing over the weekend to seven Democratic political figures. His letter asks each politician to appear with him at various forums to debate his proposed $1.2 billion tax cut, a question the governor has placed on the ballot in the November state election.
''I have included you along with six other Democrats in this challenge because of numerous mentions in media reports of your potential candidacy in 2002,'' Cellucci said in his letter. ''I am sure that no credible candidate for governor will balk at this challenge.''
The politicians who received the letter are either actively campaigning or have been mentioned in the media as potential candidates. They are former US representative Joseph P. Kennedy, Secretary of State William F. Galvin, Senate President Thomas F. Birmingham, US Representative Martin T. Meehan, former Democratic Party national chairman Steven Grossman, House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, and state Treasurer Shannon P. O'Brien.
The strategic move turns on its head the conventional wisdom that incumbents should play it safe and ignore likely opponents, and puts Cellucci back in the role in which he is most comfortable: a feisty candidate.
''Cellucci sees this as a warmup for 2002,'' said one top adviser to the governor. ''It shows that running for reelection is a very real option and he sees these debates as a signal that he is not afraid of running against any of these guys.''
Cellucci's approval ratings have tumbled in the last six months, as his administration has been buffeted by such crises as the massive Big Dig cost overrun and a scandalous harbor cruise funded by the Massachusetts Port Authority. Both Republican and Democratic insiders say they have become convinced he will seek a graceful exit from the corner office before his four-year term ends.
The most frequently mentioned scenario involves his landing a top federal post if Texas Governor George W. Bush, a close ally, wins the presidency.
Not in recent memory has an incumbent governor sought out an opponent - let alone a string of potential opponents - so early in an election cycle and challenged them to debates. Among other risks, the move could elevate the lesser-known Democrats' public profiles.
With a battered Republican Party in Massachusetts and a small margin of victory in 1998, Cellucci has been forced to abandon traditional ways of campaigning and promoting his agenda. He broke precedent last year when he used his political organization and fund-raising skills to gather enough voter signatures to place an income tax rollback on the 2000 ballot. No governor has used the initiative petition process to advance his legislative agenda.
The Democrat-controlled Legislature has repeatedly rebuffed his call to roll back the state income tax from 5.85 percent to 5 percent.
Cellucci's political advisers say that with record-breaking state tax collections creating huge annual budget surpluses, voters will strongly support the tax cut, and the governor would regain much of the political ground he lost during the last year if a series of debates with Democrats were held over the issue. They say that as many as two-thirds of those polled in their survey earlier this year favor the rollback.
Cellucci's challenge could put the Democrats in a bind on how to respond. Birmingham already has agreed to debate Cellucci, after the Tax Equity Alliance, a liberal advocacy group, proposed the event. If the others defer, they will cede the ground to Birmingham as the Democratic standard-bearer.
Avoiding the governor's challenge could also expose the others to attacks from Cellucci for not having the courage to take a stand on the tax cut plan.
Cellucci contends that Massachusetts taxpayers had been promised the rollback to 5 percent in 1989 and 1990, when the Legislature and Governor Michael S. Dukakis pushed through an income tax hike to deal with the state's fiscal crises.
But Democrats on Beacon Hill, led by Finneran and Birmingham, have argued that the tax cut is fiscally reckless and that the state needs to hedge its bets against another economic downturn.
Finneran has proposed lowering the income tax to 5 percent but over a longer period, and with the reduction pegged to the growth in personal income. That plan is endorsed by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a business-funded fiscal watchdog group, but it was rejected by the Senate.
Last year, the Legislature, on Finneran's initiative, approved a gradual reduction of the tax, from 5.95 percent to 5.85 percent this year, to 5.80 percent in January 2001, and 5.75 percent on Jan. 1, 2002.
