New York ? Democrat Eliot Spitzer was inaugurated Monday as the 54th governor of New York, calling for an end to “the politics of cynicism and division” and signing a series of ethics measures.

Spitzer said the frequent deadlocks between Republican Gov. George Pataki and the Legislature thwarted school improvements, government ethics reforms, efforts to cut the nation’s highest taxes and attempts to revive the state’s economy.

“New York has slept through much of the past decade while the rest of the world has passed us by,” Spitzer said in his inaugural address in Albany. “Today is the day when all of that changes – when we stop standing still and start moving forward once more.”

Spitzer, New York’s two-term attorney general, won the governorship on Nov. 7 with a landslide victory over former state Assembly Republican Minority Leader John Faso. Pataki, who served 12 years, did not seek re-election and is eyeing a run for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination.