Replacing Eliot Spitzer, who rose to the governorship of New York after browbeating Wall Street titans, is David Paterson, a man so affable that the colleague he supplanted in an Albany coup now speaks of him in glowing terms.

“David is extremely intelligent, charming and witty, and enjoys the goodwill of people in both parties,” said state Sen. Martin Connor, a Manhattan Democrat whom Paterson knocked off as Senate minority leader in 2002. “He ran against me, and he beat me. But we remain friends. I’ve been helpful to him, and he’s been helpful to me. We enjoy each other’s company.”

With Spitzer announcing his resignation amid a prostitution scandal, Paterson, 53, will become the country’s third black governor since Reconstruction, assuming control of the third-largest state in the country and a government that many say has been dysfunctional for years.

Paterson’s background

Under New York law, Paterson will fill out the remaining three years of Spitzer’s term. Several prominent New Yorkers such as Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Independent New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg are rumored to be considering running for governor in 2010. But Democrats predicted that Paterson will have enough time before then to establish himself as the incumbent favorite.

Though his ascension is sudden, Paterson, who is married with two children, has had plenty of preparation. Born in Brooklyn, he was raised in the thick of the Harlem political world. His father, Basil Paterson, served as state senator, deputy mayor and secretary of state and is allied with such Harlem heavyweights as Democratic U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel.

He graduated from Columbia University and Hofstra Law School, and went to work for the Queens district attorney and David Dinkins’ campaign for Manhattan borough president. In 1985, at age 31, he came to the state Senate, representing his father’s former district.

Given his abilities as a legislator, some in Albany were surprised in 2006 when he gave up his shot at leading Senate Democrats in the majority for the more ceremonial position of lieutenant governor. But his allies predict that he will handle his first executive role well. “He’ll do fine. He’s a veteran. He’s been in the trenches for many, many years,” said Assemblyman Keith Wright, a Harlem Democrat who has known Paterson since childhood.

Blindness

As an infant, Paterson was declared legally blind, with minimal sight in only one eye. “The impressive thing about him … is a constant striving to overcome his disability,” said Eric Lane, who taught him at Hofstra.

He walks confidently into rooms, finding his way with what seems like ease. He strides up to people he can’t see clearly and greets them by name. He has a famous recall for facts, figures and phrases, gives speeches from memory, plays basketball, ran a marathon and has recently taken up guitar.

Though he may make it look easy, friends and colleagues say, it isn’t.

“It truly is pretty remarkable that he’s compensated for it,” said State Sen. Eric Schneiderman, a Manhattan Democrat, who said he has traveled with Paterson and watched him maneuver in crowds. “He’s got a tremendous independent streak, and a very strong sense of self-reliance.”

Paterson has said he can see shapes and shadows. He does not use a cane or a seeing-eye dog, but is generally accompanied by a staffer who can tell him who is approaching. He never learned Braille, but can read for a few minutes at a time with the help of a magnifying monocle. He has most of what he needs read aloud to him by staffers, and has said that when he has to give a speech, an aide reads relevant material into voicemail, and he calls the voicemail to hear it.

“From that, I’ll just try to formulate a speech in my head, and if I’m lucky, I’ll remember it all,” he once told a reporter.

Political leanings

Paterson’s family roots set him apart somewhat from other black politicians on the rise who are viewed as part of a new post-civil-rights era generation, such as Sen. Barack Obama, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Newark Mayor Cory Booker. While sharing part of their reform agenda, Paterson represents a more traditional brand of community-based urban leadership, say New York Democrats.

Like Spitzer, Paterson is supporting his state’s junior senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton, for president, not Obama. His politics are liberal, further left in several areas than Spitzer, who as a former attorney general emphasized criminal justice and who drew criticism for cutting back on the money allotted to New York City schools after a long-running court battle.

But Republicans in the legislature predicted Wednesday that they would be able to work better with Paterson, given the relations he cultivated over 20 years in Albany. “The state needs to heal and I think he can do that,” said Martin Golden, a Brooklyn Republican. “The Assembly and Senate want to see him succeed. We’re the laughing stock of the nation and need to get this state back on a firm footing.”