Andrew Mark Cuomo was sworn in on Friday night as New York’s 56th governor in a private ceremony with family and friends at the Executive Mansion. He planned to waste no time getting to work, scheduling his first staff meeting on Saturday morning before his formal inauguration ceremony. Read more after the jump…
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(NYTIMES)–Andrew M. Cuomo, flanked by his companion, Sandra Lee, daughters, mother and father, former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, was sworn in as governor of New York on Friday night.

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Perhaps befitting a leader of New York, Mr. Cuomo is starting his term his way. He plans to keep the public out of the Saturday ceremony, breaking decades of tradition for first inaugurals. The only recent exception was the surprise swearing-in of David A. Paterson, which took place in the Assembly chamber shortly after Eliot Spitzer’s resignation in 2008.

In a statement released shortly after his swearing-in, Mr. Cuomo said, “I am honored and humbled to accept this tremendous responsibility.”

“The time has come to return integrity, performance and dignity to New York and make it the Empire State once again,” he added.

The Friday night swearing-in signaled the actual transition of power in the state, with Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, officially becoming governor at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday. New governors traditionally hold a public swearing-in ceremony the next day, where they re-create their oath and deliver an inaugural address, as Mr. Cuomo will do on Saturday afternoon, though without members of the general public present.

About 40 members of Mr. Cuomo’s family attended the private swearing-in on Friday night, including his parents, Mario and Matilda; his three daughters, Mariah, Cara and Michaela; his companion, Sandra Lee; his younger brother, Chris, who is a co-anchor of “20/20” on ABC, and his three sisters, including Maria Cuomo Cole and her husband, Kenneth Cole, the shoe designer.

The family had a buffet-style dinner at the mansion from 6 to 8 p.m., with pasta and chicken, a selection of New York wines and several types of dessert. Mr. Cuomo and his lieutenant governor, Robert J. Duffy, were sworn in at 10 p.m. by the state’s chief judge, Jonathan Lippman, who will repeat the oath at the formal inauguration on Saturday.

Mr. Cuomo took the oath shortly after 10 p.m., and his staff provided a video feed of the event. Ms. Lee, a Food Network star, held the Bible on which Mr. Cuomo, who wore a black suit and blue tie, placed his left hand. After reciting his oath, Mr. Cuomo was cheered by his family as he kissed Ms. Lee, who wore a white dress, and his three daughters. His mother grasped Mr. Cuomo’s face and kissed each cheek, and then he embraced his father.

The time for the swearing-in on Friday night was intended to make it easier for some of the younger members of Mr. Cuomo’s family to attend. Reporters were not permitted to cover those proceedings, as with the swearing-in of Mr. Spitzer and former Gov. George E. Pataki.

In keeping with the modest tone of his inauguration, Mr. Cuomo’s formal ceremony will take place on Saturday inside the State Capitol in front of about 175 invited guests, family members and reporters.

Mr. Cuomo’s predecessor, Governor Paterson, will attend the ceremony, but others, including Mr. Spitzer, Mr. Pataki and former Gov. Hugh L. Carey, were not invited.

Mr. Cuomo will open the Executive Mansion to the public in the afternoon, as Mr. Spitzer did four years ago, and for the first time will invite the public to attend the governor’s annual address to the Legislature next week.

The spare event on Saturday will be a sharp contrast to the first inauguration of Mr. Cuomo’s father, heard by 2,600 attendees, or his 1987 inaugural, attended by about 5,000 people and included a 19-gun salute and symphony overtures. It will have more in common with his father’s last inauguration, in 1991, a six-minute ceremony in the State Court of Appeals held amid another state fiscal crisis.

In a radio interview this week, Mr. Cuomo said the state’s financial woes were tempering celebratory feelings.

“The challenges are daunting,” he said. “So anyone who underestimates the slope of the hill that this state has to climb, let’s call it a mountain, is just not dealing with reality.”