Here’s a brief taste of my interview today with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo, who made his CapTon debut (at least since I’ve been here, and for the current election cycle) from the Hancock International Airport in Syracuse.

Cuomo, who has emerged from his Rose Garden and is now hitting the stump with a vengeance (he did two extended TV sit-downs today, sandwiched in between an upstate campaign swing), condemned the dysfunction in state government in some of the harshest terms I’ve heard him use yet.

“I’ve been in the bowels of it for three years,” he told me. “I’ve been doing the cases – from the $500,000 school superintendents on Long Island, to Senator Pedro Espada, to the comptroller’s office, to Troopergate with Governor Spitzer and the abuse there.”

“So, I’ve been staring at the beast for three years, and to me it is disgusting, and also it’s tragic to me because I believe in the honor of state government.”

It’s interesting that Cuomo chose to use the word “disgusting”, because it’s one that his GOP opponent, Carl Paladino, has also employed to described what he alleges is the AG’s role in the mortgage crisis when he was serving as HUD secretary.

And just this week, Paladino said he finds the task of campaigning for governor “the most disgusting thing ever got myself involved with,” but added: “It’s a necessary evil so that I can do the real job.”

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