Andrew Gounardes announces his campaign

Andrew Gounardes, a 26-year-old attorney and official in the local Bay Ridge Democrats club, formally declared his candidacy to run against Brooklyn's only Republican State Senator, Marty Golden, this afternoon.

"Our state government still lacks the accountability, transparency, and honesty that we deserve. And worst of all, some of the politicians we've elected to office and entrusted with our votes, aren't doing much about it," he said early in his speech.

Despite the indirect shot at his incumbent opponent, Mr. Gounardes spent more of his speech on education policies than anything else. The announcement location itself highlighted the issue, set in front of the local high school, Fort Hamilton, that Mr. Gounardes attended not too many years ago.

"Fort Hamilton, despite all its great accomplishments, is a symbol of failing education policies that weakened our schools and set back our students," he said. "Every day teachers strive to educate 1,500 more students than this building has room for. Across our district, more than half our schools are over capacity ... that is just unacceptable."

Senator Golden is a strong fundraiser and performed strongly in the district in past elections, but after the event Mr. Gounardes said after he wasn't intimidated by the prospect of challenging him. "Marty Golden is well known and has been around for a long time. But this is about his record in office, and he as to go defend that record."

Watch the video below: