New York’s Andrew Cuomo officially announces run for governor

Democratic state Atty. Gen. Andrew M. Cuomo announced his long-expected candidacy for New York governor Saturday, promising to fix the state’s colossal budget crisis and reform its troubled political culture.

Cuomo, making his second try for governor, outlined his plan to restructure the state’s government and plug a deficit that is likely to balloon to $20 billion by January, when a new chief executive takes over in Albany. Incumbent Democratic Gov. David Paterson is not seeking to keep his job.

“It’s time for the people of the Empire State to strike back,” Cuomo, 52, said at a rally Saturday in front of Manhattan’s Tweed Hall, a former courthouse named for a crooked 19th century political boss who stole millions of dollars from New York City taxpayers.

“Albany’s antics would make Boss Tweed blush,” Cuomo told the crowd.

In recent years, politicians in the state capital have been swamped by corruption, paralyzed by infighting, and embarrassed by personal scandals that forced one governor, Eliot Spitzer, out of office, and that deterred his successor, Paterson, from running in the fall election.

Cuomo, the son of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, promised he could shrink the bureaucracy’s 1,000 agencies by one-fifth, cap state employees’ salaries, slash spending and rewrite the rules of how the notoriously dysfunctional state Legislature operates.

Without offering specifics, he insisted he could get the state’s “fiscal house in order” without raising taxes or borrowing billions of dollars.

Though he has fashioned himself as a hard-charging reformer willing to take on the status quo and vested interests, Cuomo is not an outsider.

As a young man fresh out of law school, he managed his father’s successful run for governor in 1982 and took a position in his administration. Even after leaving his father’s side for a private law firm, he continued to operate as a fierce and sometimes intimidating advisor and political enforcer.

Later, he founded a housing assistance program for the poor and served under President Clinton as secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

In 2002, Cuomo made his first bid for governor but abruptly pulled out of the race before the primary when it was clear he was losing. Soon after he was caught up in a messy divorce from the late Robert F. Kennedy’s daughter, Kerry, with whom he has three daughters.

Four years ago he made a political comeback, easily winning an election for attorney general. He has since gained prominence and voter approval. He investigated Wall Street’s bonus structure, student lenders’ unethical ties to universities and the shenanigans of both Democratic and Republican politicians.

Polls have shown him as the front-runner to be governor against the likely Republican candidates. The state GOP is holding its convention next month to sort out its ticket.

But David Catalfamo, a Republican consultant, said it was too early for a “Cuomo coronation,” especially in a year when voters around the country are rejecting establishment candidates.

No matter what Cuomo promises now, Catalfamo said, “once voters really start to focus on Andrew’s record and take a look at his sense of entitlement in Albany, they’ll want something better.”

State Democrats are holding their convention starting Tuesday, and Cuomo’s nomination at the meeting will only make official what has been in the works for months. He has stocked his campaign war chest with $16 million and has worked behind the scenes to line up supporters.

Douglas Muzzio, a public affairs professor at New York’s Baruch College, said Cuomo’s challenge was to raise voters’ expectations that he’s tough enough to solve the state’s problems but not let them forget that the solutions will involve sacrifices.

“He’ll have to dish pain,” Muzzio said, “but he has to demonstrate the pain is worth it — that he can deliver and produce the good effects down the road. He’s a smart enough politician to know that’s a tricky tradeoff.”

geraldine.baum@latimes.com