With New York Democrats poised to lose their fourth consecutive mayoral election today, some Democrats are starting to acknowledge that their losing streak hasn’t happened by accident, and are calling for a serious look at the state of the party.

Yesterday, as the ever-growing chasm separating the Republican incumbent, Mayor Bloomberg, from his Democratic challenger, Fernando Ferrer, in the polls grew even larger, to 38 percentage points, both candidates spent the day shaking hands and urging New Yorkers to vote. Mr. Ferrer and his Democratic supporters insisted he could still pull off an upset victory, and Mr. Bloomberg said he was so unsure about the election’s outcome that he had prepared both a concession speech and a victory speech.

But even in the midst of the last minute politicking, most political insiders were admitting that the past few months have been far from smooth sailing for Mr. Ferrer and his political party. In fact, the waters of New York City have been downright choppy for the Democratic Party.

“My hope is that the Republican streak will end,” a leading Democratic consultant, Howard Wolfson, said in a telephone interview. “Should I be disappointed tomorrow, my hope is that those of us who care about the party do engage in a conversation about how we move forward, and ways in which members of the party can do things differently. Having said that, I continue to believe that we are going to be victorious tomorrow.”

Mr. Wolfson said that facing a self-financed billionaire like Mr. Bloomberg would not be simple for any candidate, but he said that wasn’t the only problem.

“It has not gone unnoticed that Republicans have won three elections in a row, nor should it,” he said. “I think that the money was critical. I think it distorted the campaign in ways large and small, but obviously there are other factors at work.”

Mr. Wolfson, who represents the New York State Democratic Committee, isn’t alone in that sentiment.

During the Democratic primary, the dysfunctional nature of the Democratic Party became a central focus of Rep. Anthony Weiner’s campaign.

In the final days of the primary race, as Mr. Weiner gained on Mr. Ferrer, he drove around in a “Real Solutions Express” campaign bus. At a mid-August debate, he said, “I have said, repeatedly, that I think if we want to move our party in the direction where we start winning some of these municipal elections, that we need to offer some new solutions.”

In interviews yesterday, Democrats said that type of message should not just be campaign rhetoric. Tomorrow, the idea of party reform and party building should become Democratic marching orders.

“I think pretty clearly when you have a Republican president, a Republican governor, and a Republican mayor, you need to do better,” City Council member Eric Gioia, who is running for re-election today, said. “I’m personally very tired of losing elections at the federal, state, and city levels, and I think New Yorkers are hungry for leaders who will come forward with new ideas, leaders who are willing to talk straight and who go out there, roll up their sleeves, and solve problems. New Yorkers don’t vote on simple party lines anymore, nor should we expect them to.”

Mr. Gioia said in the coming months and years his party needs to invest in its grassroots infrastructure. It also needs to put forward candidates with the “vision and vigor” as well as the ideas and record required to run New York City.

Another City Council member, Eva Moskowitz, who crossed party lines to endorse the mayor for re-election, said, “We will have had 16 years of a Republican mayoralty. I do think that is significant and a wakeup call for the party.”

She said in a city with five Democrats for each Republican, the dominance that Mr. Bloomberg has gained in the polls cannot constitute an accident.

“I have always been a believer that ideas matter and competence matters,” Ms. Moskowitz, whose term in the council ends this year, said. “One can’t simply trot out Democratic Party pablum – you really have to have smart policy and you have to demonstrate competence in achievement.”

Not everyone, however, said the Democratic Party is in dire straits.

The chairman of the State Democratic Committee, Herman “Denny” Farrell, said, “Democrats in New York State have more positions than any other party. The Democratic Party is doing very well…. We’re going to have a very good year this year and next year of course we’re going to win the governorship.”

Mr. Farrell is still predicting that Mr. Ferrer will be the mayor elect tomorrow. He said he plans to attend “one of the biggest victory parties” in New York history tonight. When he wakes up tomorrow, he said, “Then I’ll worry about what to do next.”

A professor of history at Cooper Union and a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, Fred Siegel, said the expected Bloomberg landslide is not a “Republican victory” but a loss for Mr. Ferrer.

“This is a personal victory for incumbency and Bloomberg’s money against a fabulously inept candidate,” he said. “This is all about Ferrer. The key to this election is not Bloomberg. It’s Ferrer. It’s Ferrer running for an office that no longer exists – he’s running for a pre- Giuliani mayoralty. Giuliani transformed the office. Freddy has been living in a cocoon.”

He said the Democratic Party, which controls the vast majority of seats in the City Council and the state Assembly, as well as the state and city comptroller positions, among others, is far from its death bed.

But, he said, Mr. Ferrer does represent a “highly exaggerated version” of a larger Democratic problem – not providing answers to new questions.

Still, he said, the Republican Party is in worse shape.

“The Republican party is so pathetic that part of the party is trying to auction itself off to [Thomas] Golisano. Another part of the party wants to run an out-of-state candidate,” said Mr. Siegel, in a reference to the former governor of Massachusetts, William Weld.

A top Giuliani aide, Bruce Teitelbaum, suggested both parties need to do some soul searching in the coming years.

“There’s enough evidence now that the ability to get elected for citywide or statewide office in New York is not necessarily contingent any longer on the power of political parties,” he said.