For the first time since his Republican challenger was selected in last week’s primary, Democratic candidate for governor, Andrew Cuomo, is on the attack.

The Cuomo campaign put out its first attack advertisement Thursday morning. The television spot seeks to define the upstart challenger before many people get to know Carl Paladino.

Up to this point, Cuomo has resisted swinging at Paladino, saying he didn't want to degrade the process. But there may be another reason – that the state attorney general does not want to turn off voters by reminding them of his angry reputation that he's painstakingly tried to shed.

Former Governor Eliot Spitzer, Cuomo's predecessor as state attorney general, candidly talked about that reputation Thursday on CNN, where Spitzer now works. Spitzer says now that Cuomo is wounded politically, his critics may start to pounce.

"The problem that Andrew has, behind the scenes, everybody knows he's the dirtiest, nastiest political player out there. That’s his reputation in Washington. When his father was governor, he had brass knuckles and played hard ball,” said Spitzer. “He has a lot of enemies out there. Nobody is willing to stand up to him. When it appeared he was going to win it, it was inevitable. If it appears not to be not inevitable, things will change, he has a lot of folks he's been on the wrong side of, who say, ‘wait a minute, he may not want to pretend he plays that game, he does’ and he’s worse at it."

In response to the former governor's remarks, Cuomo said "The attorney general’s record, credibility and honor speak for themselves, as do Mr. Spitzer’s."

There's no love lost between Cuomo and Spitzer, who by the way, added that he thinks Cuomo will win, just not by the commanding margin once thought.

This isn't the first time the two have sparred. Back in 2007, Cuomo launched the so-called "Choppergate" investigation which Spitzer has called bogus.

"Most politicians and Andrew certainly fit into that category, wanna be looked at as positive, they want to be looked at as putting forth a positive message about the future of the state, the future of New York, the future of cleaning up Albany and doing the right thing," said Media Consultant Jimmy Siegel. "They don't want to necessarily be associated with negative attacks. So hence, they let the negative commercials do the job for them."

In response to the Cuomo ad, Paladino says he has done nothing wrong.

The Buffalo businessman says he is a proud landlord of government buildings, claiming that he actually offers below market rate rents.

He says the ad is just another in a recent line of unfair attacks, and is all part of an effort to avoid talking about the state's problems.

"Nothing Andrew has said in the last week and a half is a fair attack," Paladino said. "He's sending out his surrogates right now to stymie our campaign, it's not working. We're bloodying them all up and we're sending them back. He's got to get with the program, the people want to hear what he's about."

Paladino later released his own attack ad, a print advertisement, portraying Cuomo as Pinocchio.

The jab stems from a news conference Wednesday where Cuomo told NY1 he had voted for Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the past. When pressed on it later, Cuomo’s campaign said the candidate misspoke and had not voted for Bloomberg.

Paladino has dismissed the endorsement, saying the mayor and Cuomo are so similar on key issues that Independent voters won't care.