New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who made a name for himself by focusing his investigations on malfeasance in the financial world, will announce he is running for governor in 2006.

The announcement will be made in a series of telephone interviews with journalists. Republican Gov. George Pataki has not yet stated whether he will seek a fourth term, but aides have said recently he would seek another four-year term.

Spitzer enters the race as the Democratic front-runner in a state where the party’s presidential nominee, Sen. John Kerry, received 58 percent of the vote in the November election. An October poll by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion showed Spitzer with a 57 percent approval rating, compared with 41 percent for Pataki in a survey of 817 registered voters.