The Giuliani campaign just concluded a conference call with former Massachusetts Governor Paul Cellucci. Usually conference calls with a surrogate instead of the candidate are on the duller side, but in this one, Cellucci came out swinging at Romney.
“There appears to be some desperation as the margin certainly narrows [I presume he’s talking about New Hampshire],” Cellucci began. “There have been some pretty weak arguments from the govenah [Cellucci has a strong Massachusetts accent] who really had no tax cuts for the people of Massachusetts. One he’s wrong on the facts – Rudy Giuliani has always supported the line-item veto, but he wants it via a constitutional amendment, and in his twelve commitments, he said he would support that.”
“On the commuter tax, it was a half of one percent, and it was an existing tax,” Cellucci said. “He set priorities that included cutting the taxes of residents, and corporate tax for businesses in the city. He cut taxes 23 times… Romney had no real tax cuts. He had sales tax holiday and an adjustment in capital gains tax. The tax burden went up 10 percent during his time.”
“He promised to cut taxes. When he came in, the tax rate was 5.3 percent [income, I think he’s talking about – a few more specifics during the call would have helped]… When he left, it was 5.3 percent. I was able to cut from 5.95 percent to 5.3 percent. I was determined to get there, just as Rudy was determined to get there when he was in New York City, even though he had an overwhelmingly Democratic city council.”
Carl Cameron of Fox News: Your assessment of the Romney economy?
Cellucci: He’s up in New Hampshire and says he wants to cut taxes, ya gotta look at the record, and ask did he cut taxes? He had fee increases, he closed loopholes… Cato [Institute] gave me an A, Romney not a C.
Scott of Boston Globe: Can you confirm Rudy raised $10 million last quarter?
Cellucci: I can’t confirm.
Maria Comella, Rudy’s press secretary: We’re not at a point where we’re confirming numbers.