By Jennifer Glickel
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo accepted the Democratic nomination for governor on Thursday, promising to shake up the culture in Albany, which he characterized as corrupt and dysfunctional.
Cuomo, the son of former three-term Gov. Mario Cuomo, also introduced his running mate Robert Duffy, the mayor and former police chief of Rochester.
"New York State is in crisis and it's time this Democratic Party stood up and made this state the Empire State again," Cuomo told delegates at the state Democratic convention Thursday morning.
Cuomo said the public has lost its trust in the state government, and his job is to restore that trust through his actions.
"State government that was supposed to be part of the solution became part of the problem," Cuomo said, referring to the budget standoff in Albany. "We're going to have do more with deeds than with words, my friends."
Cuomo's speech also focused on the importance of state legislators raising the charter school cap before Tuesday's deadline for the federal Race to the Top funding program. New York's cap on charter schools was a major contributing factor to the state's failure to receive up to $700 million in federal education funds earlier this year.
"We have a second opportunity," the attorney general said in his acceptance speech. "We have a second bite at the apple. It would be a tragedy if we are lost $700 million because [the] state Legislature failed to act. We need that bill passed."
