ALBANY – The billionaire George Soros and his family are emerging as major players in today’s New York legislative elections. They donated heavily to Democratic candidates seeking to chip away at the Republican majority in the state Senate.

In the past two weeks, Mr. Soros, two of his sons, Robert and Jonathan, and a daughter-in-law, Melissa Schiff Soros, contributed a total of $68,000 to various Senate Democrats, making them the second most prolific donors in the final stretch of the campaign, according to an analysis of public records by The New York Sun.

The Soros family’s total contributions for the year in legislative races amounted to $257,000, all of which went to Democratic candidates for the state Senate, the records suggested.

The other top donors of the past two weeks were established Albany interest groups, which spread their money among candidates of both parties, including the New York City District Council of Carpenters, $75,000; the Medical Society of the State of New York, $63,254; the national union for public employees, AFSCME, $61,000, and the New York State Optometric Association, $57,000.

Although George Soros is better known for spending at least $23.7 million to defeat President Bush, he also has a nationwide goal of making state and local governments less conservative, a spokesman for the family, Michael Vachon, told the Sun yesterday. He is targeting the Senate’s longstanding Republican majority as part of that effort, Mr. Vachon said.

“The notion is, New York is a state that has more Democrats than Republicans,” he said. “If we can’t gain a foothold here, how can we expect to win on the national level?”

“They’re very committed to a progressive social and political agenda,” the deputy minority leader of the Senate, Eric Schneiderman of Manhattan, said. He said the family members “have come to believe that taking the leadership of the state Senate away from the Republicans in the key to breaking up the gridlock in Albany.”

“It’s to the great benefit of us all that the Soros family has gotten as heavily involved as they now are,” Mr. Schneiderman said.

A spokesman for Senate Republicans, John McArdle, questioned the Soros family’s motives.

“They tell us it’s all about Rockefeller drug law reform,” Mr. McArdle said. “That’s the excuse they use here in New York. … They are just misguided … because we’re there. … We’ve got a record there.”

The donations by the Soros family were not enough to offset the fundraising advantage of the Senate Republicans. Of the $2.5 million in donations to legislative races in the past two weeks, more than $1 million flowed to the Senate Republican Campaign Committee and the candidates they support. Less than half that amount, or $471,300, went to Senate Democrats. The same majority-minority ratio applied to the Assembly, where the Democrats raised almost $508,000 in the past two weeks, or more than twice the $200,250 that went to Republican candidates.

With the vast majority of incumbents facing no serious opposition, both sides in the Senate contest are concentrating their resources in a few competitive races.

Three involve city districts. One is the race in East Harlem and the Bronx between the incumbent, Olga Mendez, a Democrat-turned-Republican, and a Democrat on the City Council, Jose M. Serrano. Another is the three-way contest for an open seat in the Bronx and Westchester among the Democratic nominee, Assemblyman Jeffrey Klein, the Independent-Conservative candidate, Assemblyman Stephen Kaufman, and the Republican, John Fleming. The third is the race for an open seat in Brooklyn and Staten Island between the Republican, Albert Curtis, and the Democrat, Diane Savino.

Competitive races outside New York City include a Westchester contest between a Republican incumbent, Nicholas Spano, and a Democratic member of the Yonkers City Council, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and a race in the Syracuse area between a Republican incumbent, Nancy Larraine Hoffmann, and a Democratic challenger, David Valesky.

Currently outnumbered by Republicans 37-24 in the 62-member house, Democrats hope to add two or more members today to their contingent.

“We’ve got a multi-year plan to take control, and we think we’re going to take a major step forward,” Mr. Schneiderman said.

Recent campaign mailings in support of Ms. Mendez, a Senate veteran who switched parties to join the GOP majority after the 2002 election, have further blurred party distinctions in that race.

Mailings sponsored by the Republican State Committee emphasize that Ms. Mendez is also the candidate of the Independence Party and encourage supporters to vote for her on Row C.

One of the mailings said to be paid for by the Republican state committee lists other candidates who have received the Independence Party line in the past, including Ralph Nader, Ross Perot, and three Democrats – Senator Schumer, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, and Rep. Carolyn Maloney. In the English-language sections of the four-page bilingual mailing, the word “Republican” appears twice, the word “Democrats” appears once, and the words “Independence” and “Independence Party” appear more than 15 times.

“Our parties, not any political machine, must come first,” the flier says. “Senator Mendez has fought the party bosses her whole career. She has always put our community first, and that’s what makes her an Independent.”

That flier is similar to one distributed by the Independence Party itself and even has the same postal permit number.

A vice chairwoman of the Independence Party, Cathy Stewart, said her party and the state GOP cooperated on the mailings.

“She’s a real out-of-the-box politician,” Ms. Stewart said of Ms. Mendez. “She’s a natural for the Independence Party. Her candidacy is all about making a strong statement that party labels are meaningless when it comes to fighting for the community.”

Officials at the Republican State Committee were not immediately available to comment.