Governor Spitzer’s first year in office may have been rougher than he anticipated, but he is resting easy. He has a master plan that he hopes will make his troubles with the Legislature a thing of the past.

Mr. Spitzer intends to overthrow Joseph Bruno and bring Democrats to power in the Senate, handing over the reins to a politically friendly leadership that will function as an arm of the executive branch. Malcolm Smith, upon becoming majority leader, would rule the Senate as a viceroy, providing the governor with leverage over Sheldon Silver and the Assembly Democrats, who have little allegiance to the executive.

The problem with the plan is that it overestimates two things: the willingness of Senate Democrats, once they are in power, to subordinate their political interests to the governor’s and the ability of Mr. Spitzer to finish off the Republicans.

Right now, Senate Democrats need Mr. Spitzer. They are relying on him for pork money that they can shower on their local districts. They are also in a better position to close their two-seat deficit with the governor’s fundraising and strategic help.

The incentive to remain loyal to the governor would all but disappear once the Democrats control the Senate. Democrats would enjoy their own, much larger pool of capital money, not to mention the plethora of other financial benefits that go along with being the majority.

Moreover, the turnover that such a power change would bring about, as a Democratic Senate seat suddenly becomes irresistible to many Democratic Assembly members and Democratic term-limited City Council members, would mean that many senators friendly to Mr. Spitzer will be replaced by a new, more independent contingent of Democrats.

If anything, the Senate would be more likely to form an alliance with the Assembly, establishing a united front of legislative power that could threaten to leave the executive branch in its weakest position in New York in decades.

It’s not even clear that Mr. Spitzer can seal the deal. His political clout is not as high as it was when, in February, he helped lead Long Islander Craig Johnson to victory in the special election, and fundraising restrictions that he imposed on himself will make it difficult for him to raise enough money for both his own 2010 reelection campaign and other Democrats.

Senate Republicans are preparing for the fight of their lives next year and think their survival is guaranteed if Mayor Giuliani, who is popular with New York’s Republican base, is at the top of the GOP ticket. If he isn’t, Republicans can be counted on to have myriad tricks up their sleeves.

If Mr. Spitzer can’t guarantee a Democratic victory next year, he would be better off calling off Project: Exterminate Republicans. His war with the Senate GOP has not come cheap. Out of political necessity, Republicans attacked the governor’s executive budget. They refused to go along with Mr. Spitzer’s education distribution formula because it wasn’t generous enough to Long Island, a vulnerable base of support.

Heavily reliant on labor, Republicans forced Mr. Spitzer to roll back a major chunk of his proposed Medicaid cuts. Republicans have rebuffed Mr. Spitzer’s plan to tighten campaign finance laws, unwilling to restrict their ability to raise money at a time when they need it the most.

While Mr. Spitzer is still a threat to their existence, he could propose a trade. If Mr. Bruno would drop his opposition to the governor’s campaign finance plan and other important agenda items, Mr. Spitzer would stop trying to annihilate them.

The key to this trade is that Mr. Bruno at heart is non-ideological. He’s much more concerned about protecting his Senate oldtimers from Democratic encroachment than upholding the tenets of conservatism. The safer Mr. Bruno feels, the more he would be willing to cooperate with Mr. Spitzer.

In a sense, the two leaders are faced with a prisoner’s dilemma. Both sides have an interest in attacking and destroying the other, but they would be better off if they lay down their swords. New Yorkers would be better off too. Although it seems things cannot get worse, New Yorkers benefit from a divided Legislature governed by competing parties that serve different and often adversarial interest groups and represent the whole state, not just New York City.

The Spitzer administration apparently doesn’t see it this way. “The governor is always going to need the Democratic members to move his agenda, and if he cuts the lifeboat line, what incentive do they have to stick with him,” a top political adviser to Mr. Spitzer said.

Mr. Bruno doesn’t appear to want to make nice either. He’s planning to stage a public hearing on Mr. Spitzer’s campaign finance proposal, the purpose of which can only be to highlight the governor’s own ethical shortcomings. If it’s war they want, it’s war they’ll get.