ALBANY – Republican lawmakers are attempting to give peace a chance – at least for one more day.

In a last-ditch effort to avert war with the governor, the Republican majority leader of the Senate, Joseph Bruno, said yesterday that Albany leaders would negotiate into the night before the Senate decided on whether to override Governor Pataki’s vetoes and possibly trigger a constitutional showdown.

The chances for a three-way compromise among Messrs. Bruno and Pataki and the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, are slim, lawmakers say. Mr. Silver, a Democrat, appears to be firmly opposed to a number of key items that Mr. Pataki demands be included in a final budget deal.

In particular, the governor wants lawmakers to allow more charter schools in the state and to give parents of schoolchildren tax credits that would offset the costs of private school tuition and tutoring. Mr. Silver has said he opposes both of those measures.

As uncertainty filled the Capitol, the politics of the budget battle intersected with the New York governor’s race.

On Monday, a major topic of discussion at a closed-door meeting of Assembly Democrats was Eliot Spitzer. Democrats expressed disappointment that the attorney general, the leading Democratic candidate for governor, wasn’t taking their side, lawmakers said. One of the concerns was that Mr. Spitzer’s refusal to take a position on the governor’s vetoes was sending a mixed message about the party’s priorities.

“People would have wanted him to be on our side,” a Democratic assemblywoman who represents Westchester and Putnam counties, Sandy Galef, said. “If he would say something, that would go a long way.”

She said her colleagues had been looking forward to negotiating a budget with a Spitzer administration. Now she said it’s dawning on them that the combative atmosphere won’t necessarily vanish if Mr. Spitzer is elected. “We’re going to have problems,” she said. “It’s not going to be a panacea.”

Lawmakers at the meeting, which took place before the Assembly voted to override more than 100 of the governor’s vetoes, said Mr. Silver told them he had been informed by Mr. Spitzer’s staff that the attorney general would be staying on the sidelines.

Mr. Spitzer earlier this month criticized the budget passed by the Legislature, accusing lawmakers of profligate spending. He also said the governor’s original executive budget, the framework with which lawmakers work, avoided reform. But the attorney general hasn’t said if he supports the governor’s vetoes, saying the governor and the Legislature should sort it out themselves.

Mr. Spitzer’s lieutenant governor running mate, David Paterson, the Senate minority leader, is also playing a role in negotiations.

Yesterday, Mr. Paterson said Democrats in the Senate would block an override of the governor’s veto of a $200 million member-item appropriation, a fund split among both houses and the governor that is often called pork barrel spending. Mr. Paterson said he is demanding that Mr. Bruno provides a transparent accounting of how the money is to be spent. In the past, more than 90% of the Senate’s share of the pot has gone to Republicans, he said.

Mr. Paterson is also threatening to block overrides on other discretionary spending totaling more than $300 million.

Mr. Pataki, meanwhile, suggested yesterday that a Republican candidate for governor, William Weld, should speak out more about the budget. Asked if he thought Mr. Weld, a former governor of Massachusetts, ought to be more supportive of his vetoes, Mr. Pataki said, “It’s not a question of backing me. Candidates who want to lead this state should express their views.”

A spokeswoman for Mr. Weld’s campaign, Andrea Tantaros, did not return calls for comment. Mr. Weld, who is seeking the endorsement of Mr. Bruno, has criticized lawmakers for spending too much money. He hasn’t taken a position on the vetoes.

Mr. Pataki vetoed $2.9 billion, which would bring total spending down to $112.8 billion. The governor proposed spending $110.6 billion, an increase of $4.4 billion, or 4.1%, over the prior fiscal year, according to the state comptroller’s office.

Empowered by a recent Court of Appeals decision that held that lawmakers couldn’t modify language in appropriations bills, the governor said a number of vetoes could not be overridden. Specifically, he said the Legislature violated the state constitution when it restored about $1.3 billion in total Medicaid spending and substituted its own property tax rebate program for one that Mr. Pataki had proposed in January. Mr. Pataki’s rebates would go only to homeowners in school districts that adopt spending caps.

A major reason why Senate Republicans are holding out for a compromise is because they fear that voters won’t get the rebates if they override the governor and he impounds the money.

Mr. Pataki has suggested he might relax his position if lawmakers support a tax credit plan tied to tuition and lift the cap on charter schools.

Lawmakers say Mr. Silver isn’t budging. He may be facing some pressure from the health care union 1199/SEIU, which could gain more from a compromise that included restoring a portion of the Medicaid cuts than from an override.

The Greater New York Hospital Association and the union came out with two new ads attacking Mr. Pataki for the Medicaid cuts. One of the ads shows a mother cradling a baby that was born prematurely. The mother says Mr. Pataki’s cuts would close hospitals such as the one that saved her son’s life.The ads are part of a multi-million-dollar ad campaign that the union and the association are waging against the governor.