Less than a month after issuing a report that sparked multiple investigations of the Spitzer administration, Attorney General Cuomo said yesterday that he was “surprised at how scared people are of the attorney general.”

“I’m learning on the job,” Mr. Cuomo said at a luncheon hosted by the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. “I’m trying to get my feet underneath me.”

Mr. Cuomo joked that his daughter now has been intimidated into doing her homework, and that when he tried to contact an old friend to go fishing, his calls were returned by his friend’s lawyer.

With an embattled Mr. Spitzer fending off questions about his staff’s potential misuse of the state police to track information on the state Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, Mr. Cuomo is emerging as a rising figure New York State politics. As Mr. Spitzer’s popularity has fallen from its high of more than 60% earlier this year, recent polls have shown that Mr. Cuomo, who made an unsuccessful attempt to become the Democratic candidate for governor in 2002, is the most popular elected official in a statewide office.

A Quinnipiac poll late last month showed Mr. Cuomo’s approval at 68%, compared with 48% for Mr. Spitzer.

When asked whether he was willing to rule out a run for the governor’s office, Mr. Cuomo said: “I’m the attorney general, and I’m happy being the attorney general.”

Mr. Cuomo, who served as secretary of housing and urban development under President Clinton, made his remarks at the Metropolitan Council’s annual builder’s luncheon, at which the organization honored an affordable housing developer, Peter Fine, as its man of the year.