Now that Mayor Bloomberg has said he has ruled out a run for governor, speculation about who may challenge Governor Spitzer has turned to Attorney General Cuomo.

The possibility that Mr. Cuomo would mount an intra-party challenge to Mr. Spitzer, the man who redefined the office Mr. Cuomo now holds, was an absurdity as little as four months ago. The common assumption was that Mr. Cuomo, reborn as a disciplined and self-effacing politician after a train wreck of a gubernatorial campaign in 2002, would bide his time for eight years before trying once more to follow his father into the governor’s mansion.

In short order, the political landscape has shifted enough to glimpse the outlines of a plausible contest between the two Democratic figures in 2010.

Mr. Cuomo’s political operation is apparently attuned to the changing perceptions. A fund-raiser for the attorney general has been telling donors that Mr. Cuomo may be running for governor sooner than they think, a source close to Democratic Party leaders said.

Mr. Cuomo, 49, is an “impatient person,” the source said. “While he’s enjoying being attorney general, he would rather be governor.”
Asked about the alleged conversations, a spokeswoman for Mr. Cuomo’s political operation, Amy Dowell, said via e-mail: “Andrew’s only interest is running for re-election. Anyone saying anything else is simply wrong.”

The notion of an accelerated Cuomo candidacy may not be so far-fetched for several reasons.

For one, Mr. Spitzer is no longer the most popular politician in state government. According to a Quinnipiac University poll last month, he lost that title to Mr. Cuomo, whose investigation of the $85 billion student loan industry has put the attorney general on the national radar in a way reminiscent of Mr. Spitzer’s Sheriff of Wall Street glory days. Mr. Spitzer’s job approval numbers have recovered somewhat in recent weeks, but they’re still hovering around Mr. Cuomo’s ratings.

Mr. Spitzer’s frayed relations with organized labor could provide a strategic opening for Mr. Cuomo, one of whose top advisers in last year’s race was Jennifer Cunningham, a high-level adviser to the 1199/SEIU health care employees union. If Mr. Cuomo ran for governor, he probably would get the endorsement of the union, a powerful force in Albany politics. Mr. Cuomo also has strong support with other labor unions, including New York State United Teachers.

The most intriguing developments go beyond poll numbers. While Mr. Spitzer’s relationship with the Senate and Assembly has been acrimonious almost from the start, Mr. Cuomo has been going out of his way to endear himself to lawmakers.

Mr. Cuomo had nothing but praise for Assembly Democrats who gathered to hear the attorney general speak at a private forum arranged by Speaker Sheldon Silver late last month. Mr. Spitzer declined an invitation to speak at a similar event earlier in the year.

Mr. Cuomo told the lawmakers that they were “the best legislative body in the country,” according to a member who was present. “For thirsty legislators, it was swallowed with great glee,” the lawmaker said. “Just to have someone say nice things about us for a change.”

Said the lawmaker: “There’s no doubt, if there was a vote taken by the Assembly conference, 90% of them would prefer Andrew Cuomo to Eliot Spitzer, which is unbelievable because Andrew Cuomo had never been popular with the Legislature.”

Mr. Cuomo’s fund-raising team may have tried to take advantage of the animosity. The fund-raiser who suggested that Mr. Cuomo may run for governor after one term as attorney general made the calls during the height of the comptroller dispute between the governor and lawmakers in February, according to the Democratic source.

Having the backing of individual lawmakers is not insignificant. While the body as a whole isn’t too popular with the public, many of the members are tied in with local political organizations, county leaders, and grassroots and neighborhood opinion makers who play important roles in local races.

“A lot of these people are popular in their districts,” the Democratic source said. “If you accumulate the support of people who have grassroots behind them … then you have the potential of mounting a campaign.”

Lawmakers have also noticed Mr. Cuomo’s absence from the debate over campaign finance laws, an issue that has become the governor’s top policy priority in the last weeks of session. Mr. Spitzer is struggling to get lawmakers to agree to an overhaul of campaign finance restrictions, including an across-the-board reduction in limits and bans on certain forms of giving.

At any moment, Mr. Cuomo could have voiced support for Mr. Spitzer’s plan and urged lawmakers to pass the legislation. Instead, the attorney general — to the disappointment of the Spitzer administration — has decided thus far to stay on the sidelines.

“The attorney general is a strong advocate for public campaign finance, and that’s where he stands,” a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, John Milgrim, said.