It was a subtle moment of drama at an otherwise peppy gathering of Democratic Party state officials and activists in the Garden City Hotel on Long Island on Tuesday.

Governor Spitzer was wrapping up his speech before a large conference crowd when suddenly the cameras and reporters turned to the man who quietly took a seat in the front row.

It was Attorney General Cuomo, who was making his first appearance with the governor since July, when his office knocked the wind out of the Spitzer administration’s sails by alleging that officials had improperly used the state police to generate negative news coverage about the Republican Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno.

What could have been a chance for public reconciliation fell to pieces when Mr. Spitzer marched off the stage and out the back door without even making eye contact with the attorney general, who stood, politely applauding, just feet away.

Aides to both officials quickly denied that Mr. Spitzer had slighted Mr. Cuomo after bloggers instantly ruled it a “snub” and a “dis.” Proper protocol didn’t require that Mr. Spitzer, a very busy man, greet Mr. Cuomo, the aides argued.

To many in Albany, though, the incident is the latest sign of what many see as a growing rivalry between the two politicians, a dynamic that threatens to split the Democratic Party in 2010.

While Messrs. Cuomo and Spitzer are expected in coming days to make public conciliatory gestures — the Columbus Day Parade in Manhattan provides such an opportunity — sources close to the governor say the damage is already done.

The governor, who initially endorsed Mr. Cuomo’s report on the state police controversy and offered numerous public apologies for his administration’s conduct, now regrets not having outright rejected its conclusions that at least two of the governor’s aides conspired against Mr. Bruno, a Democratic source who spoke with Mr. Spitzer, said.

“Eliot’s people blame Andrew for the entire scandal because his report ignited the kindling,” the source said.

For the governor, the report was a public relations disaster. Republicans seized on it as evidence of what they described as the governor’s abuse of power. The Cuomo report triggered Senate investigative hearings and two investigations, one of which, conducted by the Albany County district attorney’s office, cleared Mr. Spitzer’s office of any wrongdoing. A separate probe by the state Ethics Commission is ongoing. Since the report was released, the governor’s approval rating has fallen to below 50% from as high as 75%.

Despite the governor’s response to the attorney general’s report, people close to Mr. Cuomo insist the relationship can be saved.

“Do I think that there will be times just as in the past they have their ups and downs? Yes,” a former chairman of the state Democratic Party under Governor Cuomo, John Marino, said. “But I believe that in the end the two of them are both big men, and they will both get through those rough times.”

Recent decades have seen a number of feuds between New York governors and attorneys general, which essentially serve as the executive’s law firm. Governor Carey’s attempt to fire a deputy under Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz strained their relationship. But the enmity has rarely interfered with the duties of the officials.

“Does a governor need to have a good relationship with the attorney general? Not necessarily,” Bill Cunningham, who has served as a senior aide to Mayor Bloomberg and governors Cuomo and Carey, said. “They don’t have to get along, but they do have to do their jobs.”

Messrs. Cuomo and Spitzer, who are both in their late 40s, have never been close allies. They have acted as distant rivals whose political ambitions have occasionally intersected in conflict.

Their first public clash occurred in 2000, a year after Mr. Spitzer had just started out as attorney general and Mr. Cuomo was into his fourth year as housing secretary under President Clinton.

Mr. Cuomo’s takeover of settlement negotiations with gun manufacturers left Mr. Spitzer fuming. Mr. Spitzer had assumed his office would strike the deal, telling the New York Times: “It is like a running back who takes the ball 90 yards and then somebody else steps in and takes it over the goal. You want to carry the ball across the line.”

Last year, it was Mr. Cuomo who was seething after Mr. Spitzer refused to endorse him after the Democratic convention in Buffalo at which Mr. Cuomo became the designated candidate for attorney general, Democrats said. Mr. Spitzer later announced his support for Mr. Cuomo after the latter’s victory in the Democratic primary election.

Friends of the two New York Democrats like to point out their similarities. They were raised under the shadow of powerful fathers — a developer of luxury real estate, Bernard Spitzer, and Governor Cuomo — and each has three daughters. They both have earned reputations as crusading regulators who have portrayed themselves as protectors of the little man.

Each sought the governorship. Mr. Spitzer achieved his ambition by winning in a landslide last year while Mr. Cuomo suffered an embarrassing defeat in 2002, dropping out of the Democratic primary against H. Carl McCall.

Their recent tensions have some in Albany wondering whether their paths are destined to collide in 2010 in a Democratic primary for governor. For now, the general consensus is that Mr. Cuomo won’t make up his mind for at least another two years.

“I don’t care if Eliot got caught with a 12-year-old dachshund,” a senior member of the Assembly said in an interview. “Today is not the day. Talk to me in 2009; it might be a different thing, but it ain’t happening now.”

“I don’t think anybody is thinking about 2010,” Mr. McCall said in an interview.