After months of flirting with a return to public office, Andrew Cuomo officially announced his bid for New York City mayor on Saturday.
The announcement from the Queens-raised former governor who resigned in scandal four years ago puts to an end months of speculation about his mayoral campaign, which is likely to shake up the Democratic primary for the seat.
Cuomo, who joins nearly a dozen other candidates running for the mayor’s office, enters the race as its apparent front runner, in part due to his near-universal name recognition, his access to major donors and a campaign infrastructure that he has reportedly been building up behind the scenes for months. Cuomo has maintained a strong lead in a number of polls, most of which were conducted by private consultants, for weeks, despite not announcing his candidacy until this weekend…