Eliot L. Spitzer (D)

Eliot L. Spitzer, 47, swamped his Republican opponent, John Faso, taking 69 percent of the vote in an election that was never in doubt. His two terms as state attorney general marked him as a crusader against corporate corruption. He took on the mutual fund industry, securing a billion dollars in fines and forcing changes in business practices. Now he confronts a state with severe budget problems, not least a Medicaid program bleeding money.

He is pro-abortion rights and supportive of labor. He has promised to legalize same-sex marriage, which can be a third-rail issue in a state that is 40 percent Catholic. He favors the death penalty and has promised to root out fraud in state programs.

Spitzer, who is married with three daughters, was born in the Bronx to affluent Austrian-Jewish parents and graduated from Harvard Law School. As an assistant district attorney in Manhattan he helped break the Gambino crime family's grip on the trucking and garment industry. Spitzer has told friends that he'd like to run for president someday.