The son of Jewish immigrants, Spitzer attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School, where he was editor of the Law Review. As a lawyer, he worked in the Manhattan district attorney's office spending much of his time fighting organized crime, before going to become New York’s attorney general.

Spitzer has a vote of acclamation from no less than Preeta Bansal, former NY solicitor general. He will surely clean up Albany, said Bansal, who the New York Law Journal credits with fashioning Spitzer’s role as attorney general.

Image: New York Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer and Senator Hillary Clinton join hands during a victory rally in New York on November 7.