Andrew Cuomo has quite the war chest with $24 million on hand, dwarfing his Republican opponents

The massive fund-raising effort left Cuomo with a record $23.6 million in cash on hand, narrowly beating the previous July high of $23.4 million that Gov. George Pataki had in July 2002.

Cuomo already had $16 million in his war chest at the start of the year.

The attorney general downplayed his campaign gold rush, dubbing his stash "enough money to run an effective campaign."

The show of fund-raising strength came the same day that a new Siena College poll shows Cuomo continuing to trounce the two Republicans vying to face him.

"He's now got all the money right now to run whatever type of campaign he wants," an impressed veteran GOP political consultant Ed Rollins said of Cuomo's haul.

Rollins said New York Republicans haven't had anyone who can compete for those kinds of bucks since the days of Al D'Amato and Pataki.

GOP designee Rick Lazio, who in his last filing six months ago had a paltry $637,000 on hand, refused to publicly reveal how much cash was in his war chest.

Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino, who is seeking to petition his way onto the GOP ballot, reported spending $1.65 million of his own money thus far, while raising another $100,000.

Paladino, who has vowed to spend up to $10 million of his own money on the race, had a minuscule $52,829 left in his campaign coffers.

Candidates had to hand their fund-raising records over to state officials last night.