ALBANY - A day after New York's governor said he would resign in disgrace after he was snared in a call-girl investigation, the reporter's question was inevitable for the man who will become Eliot Spitzer's successor:

Have you ever patronized a prostitute?

“Only the lobbyists,” shot back David Paterson in his first news conference as the man who will be sworn in Monday as New York's 55th governor.

While the lieutenant governor is getting international attention for taking the top office because of one of the most shocking political downfalls ever, and because he's black and legally blind, he is likely to make his mark with his humor and his collegiality in a place where both have been scarce.

That's how the well-liked 53-year-old Harlem Democrat made his mark for 20 years in the state Senate and 14 months as Spitzer's lieutenant. Through it all, the vast majority of references that he's made to his sightlessness have been in punch lines. In 2006, he described Spitzer as the visionary and himself as the legislative technician, “because I sure don't have the vision.”

On Thursday, his first press conference since Spitzer resigned Wednesday, Paterson sought to soothe a shattered state and fractious government. Where Spitzer had once called the new comptroller spectacularly unqualified and lawmakers self-dealing and unresponsive, and said the Legislature had an aura of unseemliness, Paterson held out a hand.

“We will all commit ourselves in a bipartisan way to building a relationship that will restore the public trust in our government,” said Paterson.

“I'm hopeful we will be able to proceed with a more professional and collegial basis,” said Republican Sen. George Winner. “If he's a success, we're successful in getting our work done.”

As a senator, Paterson pushed some liberal causes while also chipping away at the Republican majority - neither of which will soon be forgotten. But Paterson said governing is not the same as being a lawmaker: “In the Legislature, you are an advocate.”

“We'll have to see if he has moderated,” Winner said, citing Paterson's past that rankled gun owners and New Yorkers who support the death penalty. “He would have trouble getting elected on his own.”

But lawmakers say they hope this former legislator, with solid relationships on both sides of the aisle, will usher in cooperation beyond any traditional honeymoon.

“David Paterson has been a friend for many years,” said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver of Manhattan, the Legislature's most powerful Democrat.

And the Senate's top-ranking Republican, Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, has hinted at cooperation with Paterson and a genuine fondness for the next governor. Bruno and Spitzer were strident political enemies.

At the news conference in a packed Red Room, a ceremonial setting where governors frequently address the media, Paterson said he told Spitzer when he reluctantly accepted the job as lieutenant governor that “I would be prepared in the event I had to assume authority.

“I am prepared,” Paterson said.

Spitzer resigned Wednesday after being exposed as a client in a high-priced prostitution ring.

“This has been a very sad few days in the history of New York, and for me, it's been sadder,” said Paterson, a Harlem Democrat with a home near Albany. “My heart goes out to Eliot Spitzer, his wife, his daughters and his parents.”

“We used to call them our other family,” Paterson said of Spitzer's parents.

Paterson will be officially sworn in at 1 p.m. Monday, an hour after Spitzer's resignation takes effect.

Paterson, his salt-and-pepper beard getting saltier these days, allowed for a rare moment of reflection on his rise in politics, despite long odds.

“In some ways, I feel that I'm sitting on a sand castle that other people built,” Paterson said. “There are so many African Americans, both men and women throughout the past couple of centuries who have struggled unremittingly to try to advance opportunity for all people and for themselves.

“The fact that it has taken this long is sad,” Paterson said. “But if it in any way allows for African Americans and for those who are disabled ... to whatever extent my presence impresses upon employers or impresses upon younger people who are like me in either way, or Hispanics or women we've never had a governor from one of those communities, then I would feel very privileged, very proud and very flattered to be in this position.”