ALBANY — Republican Rick Lazio told state Conservative Party leaders Monday that Democrat Andrew Cuomo has been hiding in a foxhole while Albany burns.

Even as Lazio targeted Albany's political status quo as out of touch with New Yorkers, he drew a challenge for the Republican nomination to run for governor from a candidate who said he represents the GOP's antiestablishment "tea party" faction. The announcement by Warren Redlich of Albany County shows a revived interest in the prospects for the Republican party, which lost its base of power in the 2008 elections.

Of Cuomo, Lazio said, "Rather than provide the kind of inspired leadership the state is hungry for, he locked himself in his office and watched as Albany burned ... You can't lead from a foxhole."

Cuomo, the popular and well-financed attorney general, hasn't yet said if he'll seek the Democratic nomination for governor. He has also refused to say how he would reverse the state's fiscal crisis or confront special interests.

Cuomo spokesman Richard Bamberger reiterated that the attorney general is still concentrating on his current job.

"While the Conservative Party politicians have started their campaigns, the attorney general is focused on his public service representing the people of the State by fighting corruption and greed on Wall Street and rooting out waste and abuse in government," Bamberger said in a statement.

Conservative Party backing has been crucial for Republicans seeking statewide office in New York, where Democrats have a nearly 2 to 1 enrollment advantage.

Lazio said January's surprise U.S. Senate win by Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts shows the public wants Republicans who aren't part of the political establishment and who seek lower taxes and smaller government. Lazio said Cuomo isn't talking about issues in the governor's race because New Yorkers disagree with him.

Yet even as Lazio, a former congressman, tried to position himself as the outsider bucking Albany's political structure, Republican Redlich sought to represent the views of "tea party" Republicans. They led high-profile protests last year against President Barack Obama's proposed health-care reform.

Redlich is an Internet entrepreneur, lawyer, Republican town councilman in Guilderland and former congressional candidate. He said politicians live in the "Albany bubble" of privilege, perks and high salaries funded by taxes and that he wants to run on the Libertarian Party line in addition to seeking the Republican nomination.

"I know a lot more people living in the holy-crap-we-don't-have-anything bubble," said Redlich, a small business operator. "I know what it means to meet a payroll."

Redlich was a legal counsel in New York for Republican Rep. Ron Paul, who ran for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination on an anti-tax, anti-Iraq war platform.