Argeo Paul Cellucci (; April 24, 1948 – June 8, 2013) was an American politician, lawyer, and diplomat. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 69th governor of Massachusetts from 1999 to 2001 (acting governor, 1997 to 1999) and as the United States Ambassador to Canada from 2001 to 2005. He also served as 68th lieutenant governor of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1999, as well as in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Senate from 1977 to 1991.
Cellucci became acting governor following Bill Weld's resignation in 1997 after being nominated for United States Ambassador to Mexico. He then was elected to a full term as governor in 1998, and served until 2001, when he resigned to become the U.S. Ambassador to Canada under President George W. Bush, a post he held until 2005.
Cellucci was born in Hudson, Massachusetts, into a political family, the son of Priscilla M. (née Rose) and Argeo R. Cellucci Jr. His father was of Italian descent from the small Lazio village of San Donato Val di Comino, and his mother was of Irish ancestry.
He graduated from Hudson Catholic High School, Boston College (BA, 1970), and Boston College Law School (JD, 1973). He and his wife Jan were married in 1972. They had two daughters, Kate and Anne (who is married to Brunei-born Canadian hockey player Craig Adams). He served in the United States Army Reserve from 1970 to 1978, reaching the rank of Captain.
He was a Republican, and held the distinction of never losing an election over his three decades in elected office in overwhelmingly Democratic Massachusetts. Cellucci was first elected to public office as a member of the Hudson Charter Commission in 1970. Subsequently, he was elected to the Hudson Board of Selectmen, on which he served from 1971 to 1977. In 1976, he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives where he served until 1985. He then became a member of the Massachusetts Senate, serving from 1985 to 1991. From 1991 to 1999 he was Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts.
Cellucci became the Governor of Massachusetts in 1997 upon the resignation of Bill Weld. On November 3, 1998, Paul Cellucci was elected as governor, narrowly defeating Democratic attorney general Scott Harshbarger. He had successfully fought off a challenge from State Treasurer Joe Malone in the September primary. He was sworn in as the 69th Governor of Massachusetts on January 7, 1999.
Cellucci was a fiscally conservative, anti-tax governor who had the ability to work in a bipartisan fashion with an overwhelmingly Democratic State Legislature. In 2001, the libertarian Cato Institute, in its fifth biennial fiscal policy report card, gave Cellucci an "A" grade and said he "earned the distinction of having the best record of reducing taxes and restraining spending growth" among the nation's 50 governors. Governor Cellucci spearheaded the statewide initiative to reduce the state income tax from 5.95% to 5%, which was approved 59% to 41% by the voters of Massachusetts in November 2000.
Cellucci was also successful in maintaining the state's high education standards for most students. Those standards, which required students to pass exams in basic Math and English to receive a high school diploma, were a major piece of the Education Reform Act of 1993 and were phased in over time. The teachers unions wanted to weaken the standards just as they were about to take effect, but Cellucci worked with Speaker of the House Thomas Finneran and Senate President Thomas Birmingham, both Democrats, to hold the line on this issue.
The standards have remained in effect and in its June 4, 2007 report card on "No Child Left Behind," Time magazine found that Massachusetts students score the best on the federal tests. However, in 2000, Cellucci signed a budget bill that lowered the state's longstanding "maximum feasible development" standard for special education to the federal mandate of a "free and appropriate public education," which set a much lower standard for the provision of special education to students with disabilities. The latter standard remains in effect.
The biggest controversy during Cellucci's tenure was the huge cost overruns on the "Big Dig" – an enormous project to replace the elevated central artery highway in Boston with a tunnel. Cellucci removed the project manager, James Kerasiotes, and put his Secretary of Administration and Finance, Andrew Natsios, in charge of the project.
Cellucci, in 1998, signed into law one of the toughest gun control measures in the United States. He was also known to take a conservative approach to crime. He supported Roe v. Wade and abortion rights. For this reason, Cardinal Bernard Law disinvited Cellucci from speaking at a commencement ceremony of Hudson Catholic High School, Cellucci's alma mater.
In 2000, Cellucci proposed an amendment to the Massachusetts constitution to strip felons of the right to vote. The amendment was approved in a referendum.
Cellucci appointed many women to high ranking positions, including Margaret H. Marshall as the first female Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Her appointment marked the first time a woman headed a branch of government in Massachusetts history.
On April 10, 2001, Cellucci resigned, after George W. Bush nominated, and the U.S. Senate confirmed his appointment as U.S. Ambassador to Canada. He was succeeded by Jane Swift, who became the first woman in Massachusetts history to occupy the governor's office.
On April 17, 2001, at the Citadel in Quebec City, Cellucci presented his credentials as the 27th United States Ambassador to Canada to Governor General Adrienne Clarkson.
His four-year tenure would be a historical and controversial period in the United States – Canadian relations. On September 14, 2001, three days after the terrorist attacks on United States soil, Ambassador Cellucci thanked Canada for its overwhelming support and sympathy, including their role in Operation Yellow Ribbon, at a memorial in front of 100,000 people on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. He would mention the operation and the memorial service quite often during the days and months that followed the September 11 attacks in the United States. The months and years that followed the attacks would see extraordinary cooperation between the United States and Canada on the Smart Border Agreement, on their law enforcement and intelligence agencies to stop terrorist attacks in North America, and in Afghanistan in the war against the Taliban.
On March 25, 2003, at a speech to the Economic Club of Toronto, Cellucci faced controversy when he criticized Canadian opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. He argued that America was waging war for its own security, and that the United States would "never hesitate" to support Canada if it faced a security threat. This wording was considered especially unfortunate by some since the United States did in fact delay years before joining the British Empire in both World Wars I and II in Europe. The Globe and Mail reported Cellucci's remarks under the front-page headline "U.S. rebukes Canada" and Canadian nationalist Mel Hurtig called him "ill-mannered, obnoxious, [and] arrogant".
He also expressed support for Canada joining the U.S. missile defense program, and for urging Canada to increase defense spending. These statements, frequently perceived as implied trade threats, caused Cellucci to be sarcastically christened "the U.S. ambassador-turned-proconsul" by former Liberal cabinet minister and Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy in an opinion piece titled "Say no to missile defence" published on April 29, 2003 in The Globe and Mail. Canada has since declined to participate in the U.S. missile defense program.