ALBANY — Pressure is building on Governor Spitzer to back down from his demands and grant lawmakers their first pay raise in more than eight years.

Earlier this year, Mr. Spitzer indicated he would not give his consent to a pay raise unless the Legislature approved his plan to significantly lower campaign contribution limits and impose other restrictions on political giving.

Now, with time running out in the legislative session and Senate Republicans showing no signs of yielding on their opposition to the governor’s campaign finance proposal, Mr. Spitzer faces a tough choice: Either he adjusts his demands or risks alienating lawmakers, particularly Assembly Democrats, who have made no secret of their desire for a bigger paycheck.

Mr. Spitzer is known as an obstinate politician who does not give ground easily, but he potentially has a lot to lose by angering the Assembly. Mr. Spitzer is counting on the Democrats to strike deals with the Senate on a number of issues that are central to his agenda.

Mr. Spitzer is pushing the Legislature to approve a power plant siting bill that would help the state generate more energy over the next decade. He is pressing lawmakers to approve an expansion of the state’s database of DNA samples from convicted criminals so that it includes people convicted of all crimes. The governor also would like to clinch an agreement on scaling back the state’s Wicks law, a costly construction mandate.

Victories on these issues would help Mr. Spitzer, who pledged to shake up Albany with a burst of energy and new ideas, declare his first year a success. With expectations set so high, he can ill afford to end the session with a whimper. The governor, however, needs the cooperation of the speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, who is under pressure from his own members to deliver a pay raise.

The governor has his own leverage — lawmakers are counting on him to approve hundreds of millions of dollars in new capital spending — but the consequences of inaction in these last weeks of session would seem to weigh more heavily on the governor than lawmakers, who don’t face the same public scrutiny.

By refusing to compromise on pay raise, Mr. Spitzer also risks angering state judges, who have not received a salary increase since 1999. Chief Judge Judith Kaye has been so enflamed over the issue that she has threatened to sue the state. Mr. Spitzer supports giving judges more money, but lawmakers have refused to approve a judiciary pay raise bill that does not increase their own pay as well.

Lawmakers are predicting that Mr. Spitzer will break the logjam and downgrade his demands on a campaign finance bill. In April, the governor said talks between his administration and Senate Republicans collapsed because lawmakers would not agree to ban political contributions from limited liability companies, which can give the same amount as individuals and have been used by wealthy donors as a tool for unlimited giving, as donors can set up as many as the entities as they choose.

“I think you have to lower the bar,” the minority leader of the state Senate, Malcolm Smith of Queens, said. “There has to be something everybody can live with.” Mr. Smith said he thought the Legislature and the governor would come to an agreement before session ends on June 21.

Spitzer administration officials said the governor is not budging. A spokesman for the majority leader of the Senate, Joseph Bruno, said he doubted the two sides could come to an agreement on campaign finance.

The 212 legislators make a base salary of $79,500 a year, not including stipends for leadership roles. The earliest lawmakers would be eligible for a pay raise is January 2009, upon the start of a new term.