ALBANY — In what could be called a Christmas spirit of charity, some state Democrats are offering to pass the hat for Gov. Paterson if — as appears likely — he has trouble paying a $62,125 fine for ethics violations in his Yankee-ticket scandal.

“I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of sympathy in his community and beyond to raise money for him if it comes to that point,” Assemblyman Keith Wright of Harlem, the Manhattan Democratic chairman and a longtime Paterson friend, said yesterday.