NEW YORK (AP) – Just days after being sworn in for a second term as Nassau County Executive, Thomas Suozzi has filed papers to form a fundraising committee to challenge Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for the Democratic nomination for governor, a state official said Thursday.

Lee K. Daghlian, a spokesman for the state Board of Elections, said Suozzi’s representatives filed papers late Wednesday in Albany creating “Friends of Tom Suozzi,” a fund-raising entity set up to back his run for governor.

News of the filing was first reported Thursday afternoon on The New York Times Web site.

Since winning a landslide victory for re-election last November in Nassau County — a longtime Republican stronghold — talk of a Suozzi run for governor has grown louder. Although not an official entry into the race, the filing of papers to create a fundraising committee brings Suozzi one step closer to challenging Spitzer.

Spitzer’s campaign did not immediately comment.

If he does actually run, Suozzi will have to upset the better-known and better-financed Spitzer, who has twice been elected statewide and has the blessing of the party establishment, who are banking they can put a Democrat in the governor’s mansion after 12 years of Republican rule under George Pataki.

Pataki, widely believed to be running for president in 2008, said last year he would not seek a fourth term as governor.

The notion of challenging his party’s leadership is nothing new for Suozzi, a brash, 43-year-old lawyer and accountant from Glen Cove. First elected mayor of Glen Cove at 31, the married father of three established himself as a maverick by defeating his party’s choice for county executive in a 2001 primary. In 2004, he created the FixAlbany campaign, exposing what he called a dysfunctional state legislature. That effort led to the defeat of an incumbent state assemblyman from Nassau County.

Although Spitzer enjoys a national reputation from his crackdown on Wall Street abuses and has a prohibitive lead in the polls, Suozzi is backed by Ken Langone, the billionaire founder of Home Depot, who has said he will “leave no stone unturned to help Tom Suozzi wage a very successful and effective campaign.”

Suozzi has been pressured not to run by members of his own party, including Steve Levy, the county executive in neighboring Suffolk County, who has endorsed Spitzer. On Thursday, a group of prominent Democrats from Nassau County announced they were supporting Spitzer. The group includes former Assemblyman Arthur “Jerry” Kremer and Democratic National Committee member Robert Zimmerman.

Also Thursday, The New York Times reported that Rochester billionaire Thomas Golisano told Julian Gingold, a senior vice president at Morgan Stanley and a prominent Republican donor, he intends to announce his decision to run for governor by the end of the month.

Golisano, who ran three losing campaigns for governor as the Independence Party candidate, registered as a Republican last fall and is being wooed by some party officials to enter the race.

Golisano spokesman Steve Pigeon said the supporter misinterpreted what the businessman had said. Pigeon said Golisano has always planned to announce a decision on the race by the end of January, but insisted that Golisano has yet to say what that decision will be.

Ryan Moses, the executive director of the state Republican Party, said Golisano has had no discussions with his office about a possible campaign.

Other Republicans running or expected to run for governor include former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, former Assembly Minority Leader John Faso, Assemblyman Patrick Manning of Dutchess County, and former state Secretary of State Randy Daniels.

Spitzer is the only announced Democratic candidate.