overnor Paul Cellucci had been counting on Jim Rappaport, the former state Republican Party chairman, to make good on his promises to raise funds for the George W. Bush presidential campaign and for the governor's ballot initiative to cut income taxes.
So it was bad enough that Rappaport failed to deliver on his word. But when he called Cellucci several weeks ago and told him he was challenging the governor's longtime pal and Bush family political operative, Ron Kaufman, to become GOP national committeeman, the governor blew his top, sources said.
Making the spat more volatile is that Rappaport, the scion of a Boston-based real estate fortune, is at war with Cellucci at a perilous time for one of his family companies.
Park Transit Display - his family-owned outdoor advertising company - will soon have its lucrative contract with the Cellucci-controlled Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority up for renewal. And it's facing stiff competition from a major New York ad firm.
By the time Rappaport was putting together his challenge to Kaufman, the tension between him and the governor had been mounting.
Rappaport has provoked Cellucci's ire by failing on his pledge to produce $150,000 in donations as finance chairman of the state tax-cut ballot initiative, failing to raise $25,000 he said he would deliver for the Bush campaign and not donating to the state Republican Party this year.
''He's on Cellucci's (bad) list, big time,'' said one GOP political insider.
Rappaport brushes aside barbs from the Cellucci camp, but he acknowledges that he has thought about seeking Kaufman's post. He also defends his GOP credentials, saying he has raised ''hundreds of thousands of dollars'' for the national party and has supported and worked for a host of state candidates.
Rappaport also refuted statements by Cellucci aides that he was dumped as finance chairman of the tax cut drive, insisting he resigned voluntarily.
Rappaport, the party's US Senate nominee in 1990, said he has not donated to the state party this year because he had been backing Ohio US Representative John Kasich for president, who dropped out last summer, and because the state party, under pressure from Cellucci, was backing Bush.
Rappaport, who draws his wealth from a family real estate empire created by his father - controversial Boston developer Jerome Rappaport - admits he is promoting his company's interests at the T, although he says he has not personally lobbied the agency.
''That's sad that the company is being dragged into this,'' he said.
Adding to the political intrigue is Park Transit Display's decision to hire Cellucci confidante and former fund-raiser Jim Connolly to help its bidding process.
The firm's major competitor is a large New York ad firm, Transit Displays Inc., which has hired its own Cellucci ally as a consultant. Ray Howell is a political adviser to Cellucci.
With the T advertising contract about to expire and the political players in place, the fight for the highly lucrative contract has become intense. Both sides have accused the other of trying to rig the process.
