ALBANY, N.Y. - Lt. Gov. David Paterson, who will take over as New York's governor following Gov. Eliot Spitzer's dramatic fall from power in a prostitution scandal, said Thursday he's ready to "get New York back on track.''
At a news conference at the state Capitol, Paterson said he promised Spitzer when he accepted the job as lieutenant governor that he would be prepared to take command of the state if necessary.
"I am prepared,'' Paterson said.
"I promised the governor yesterday that I would commit myself to the people of this great state, that we would have stability and continue in these challenges that lie ahead. Now we have to get New York back on track.''
Paterson takes over on Monday, and will become New York's first black governor and the nation's first legally blind chief executive.
One of his first tasks will be working with lawmakers to close a $4.7-billion deficit and broker a deal by April 1 on a $124-billion budget proposed by Spitzer.
"We cannot afford to waste another second. We have a budget that's due and a deadline to meet,'' Paterson said.
Spitzer stepped down Wednesday amid a call-girl scandal that made a mockery of his straight-arrow image and left him facing the prospect of criminal charges and perhaps disbarment.
Spitzer and his successor have starkly different leadership styles.
While Spitzer was famously abrasive, uncompromising and even insulting, Paterson has built a reputation as a conciliator, and lawmakers quickly embraced the new order.
Barely known outside his Harlem political base, Paterson, 53, has been in New York government since his election to the state Senate in 1985.
Though legally blind, he has enough sight in his right eye to walk unaided, recognize people at conversational distance and even read if the text is placed close to his face.
Earlier in the day, Paterson said he had spoken to Spitzer.
"I just told him how sorry I was this happened and how much he still inspires me,'' Paterson said.
Of Spitzer's disclosures and resignation, Paterson said: "I'm getting over it.''
Spitzer, who built his political reputation on rooting out corruption, resigned without securing a plea bargain with federal prosecutors.
However, a law enforcement official said the former governor was still believed to be negotiating one.
"I cannot allow my private failings to disrupt the people's work,'' Spitzer said at a Manhattan news conference, his weary-looking wife, Silda, again standing at his side as he answered for his actions for the second time in three days.
The resignation brought down the curtain on a riveting drama that made Spitzer an instant punchline on late-night TV, and fascinated Americans with the spectacle of a crusading politician exposed as a hypocrite.
The scandal erupted Monday after federal law enforcement officials disclosed that a wiretap had caught the 48-year-old father of three teenage daughters arranging to spend thousands of dollars on a call girl.
It happened at a fancy Washington hotel on the night before Valentine's Day.
Law enforcement officials said he had hired prostitutes several times before and had spent tens of thousands of dollars, perhaps as much as $80,000, on the high-priced escort service Emperors Club VIP.
Investigators said he had arranged for a prostitute named Kristen to take the train from New York while he was in Washington to testify before a congressional subcommittee about the bond industry.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that the woman, born as Ashley Youmans, legally changed her name to Ashley Rae Maika DiPietro and is now known as Ashley Alexandra Dupre.
She declined comment when asked by the Times when she first met Spitzer and how many times they had been together.
It was unclear whether she would face charges. Her lawyer is Don Buchwald. but he has declined to comment further.
Among the possible charges that law enforcement authorities said could be brought against Spitzer are soliciting and paying for sex and violating the Mann Act, the 1910 federal law that makes it a crime to take someone across state lines for immoral purposes.
He also risks being charged with illegally arranging cash transactions to conceal their purpose.
Spitzer could also be disbarred.
In New York, a lawyer can lose his license to practice law for failing to "conduct himself both professionally and personally, in conformity with the standards of conduct imposed upon members of the bar.''
