ALBANY – After an unsuccessful attempt to woo Thomas Golisano to run for governor of New York, the majority leader of the state Senate, Joseph Bruno, is holding out for a marquee candidate with enough name recognition and wealth to avert political disaster in November, political insiders said.

While Mr. Golisano was far from a sure bet against the Democratic front-runner, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, he would have been an asset to Mr. Bruno. An upstate, Italian, Catholic billionaire, Mr. Golisano, 64, has the qualities to draw Republicans to the polls and the resources to help the GOP preserve its four-seat majority in the Senate.

Now that Mr. Golisano has declined a fourth run for the office, Mr. Bruno, while not ruling out endorsing Republican candidates William Weld or John Faso, is holding the door open for a more attractive alternative, sources said.

The problem is that nobody, so far, has appeared at his Capitol doorstep. Republican insiders said they can’t think of a single potential candidate in the state who fits the profile Mr. Bruno wants.

“He can’t believe that nobody else has stepped up,” state Senator Michael Balboni, a Republican who represents a Nassau County district with a predominantly Democratic population, said. “Why you haven’t had a bigger name jump into the race with bigger resources is puzzling to Senator Bruno.” He said Mr. Bruno is trying to “entice interest from other folks.”

Sometimes, however, searching for last-minute help can be dangerous. Party leaders want to avoid a replay of the 1990 governor’s race, when they tapped a little-known but affluent economist, Pierre Rinfret, who ended up spending less than they had hoped and staging a disastrously inept campaign.

About a month ago, Mr. Bruno tried to recruit real estate developer Donald Trump, but was turned down. Mr. Bruno’s office insists that the majority leader isn’t trying actively to draft another candidate, but it notably hasn’t said the choice is simply one between Mr. Faso, a former minority leader in the Assembly, and Mr. Weld, a former governor of Massachusetts.

“As I have said on many occasions, the Republican Party has several talented, qualified, candidates that have, thus far, announced their intention to run,” Mr. Bruno said in a statement on Tuesday after Mr. Golisano announced he would not seek the Republican nomination. Mr. Golisano’s decision surprised many because the Rochester businessman recently changed his party registration to Republican and said he was strongly considering another run.

Republican leaders fear that Mr. Faso, who’s from upstate, doesn’t have the cash to compete against Mr. Spitzer. He’s raised about $1 million so far, according to his latest filings – about $18 million less than the attorney general. Party officials also are concerned that Mr. Weld’s association with a bankrupt trade school in Kentucky, Decker College, will haunt him throughout the race.

Both candidates say they will ultimately prevail and persuade Mr. Bruno and other Republican leader holdouts to back their campaigns. Mr. Weld has the endorsement of the chairman of the state party, Stephen Minarik, but Mr. Faso, a fiscal and social conservative, is more in tune with the grass roots of the GOP. Both candidates are trailing Mr. Spitzer in polls by wide margins.

For Mr. Bruno, the priority is to try to make a dire situation manageable, a veteran political consultant who advised Mr. Spitzer in the 1998 attorney general’s race, Henry Sheinkopf, said.

“The only solution for him is to find an Italian Catholic businessman with major, major dollars who can fire back and try to stop the Democratic advance,” he said. “It would be helpful for him to have somebody, and if not, he’ll have to batten down the hatches and fight it out.”