A reporter’s question touched a nerve the other day with the majority leader of the state Senate, Joseph Bruno. His fellow Republicans had just selected him as their leader for a sixth two-year term, and Mr. Bruno was describing how he intends to respond to the outcry for reform at Albany. The reporter wanted to know: Why should New Yorkers expect anything new or different from “old leadership”?

The crowd of senators gathered for the news conference let out a collective groan. One grumbled out loud about “age discrimination.” Mr. Bruno, who is 75, did not directly address the question, other than to assert that much of the blame for the dysfunction in state government lies with the Democrats who run the Assembly. “No one can out reform us – not in terms of efficiency and responsiveness,” he said.

It’s pretty clear the reporter wasn’t referring to anyone’s age, but rather to the fact that Mr. Bruno has already run the Senate for a full decade, during which time Albany has sunk to new depths of gridlock and dysfunction. The same point could be made about Governor Pataki, who is finishing the 10th year of his term in office, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who is approaching his 11th anniversary next year.

Yet Senate Republicans have reason to be sensitive about the word “old.” Although Mr. Bruno himself remains remarkably fit for his age – he is famous for climbing the Capitol stairs rather than taking the elevator – time is clearly catching up with his majority as a whole.

Of the 37 Republican senators currently in office, a dozen are 70 or older. The senior member is 83-year-old John Marchi of Staten Island. He was first elected to the Senate in 1956, during the Eisenhower administration, which makes him the longest-serving state legislator in America.

For the time being, all of these graying politicians seem quite capable of fulfilling their legislative duties, and none has announced any plans to retire. But they are clearly approaching the end of their careers, and several represent districts that might well elect Democrats once the current senators leave office.

This might not present such a problem if Senate Republicans weren’t already swimming against the tide in a predominantly Democratic state. They lost at least three seats on Election Day, and a fourth race remains too close to call. That will shrink their majority to 35-27 or 34-28 as of January, putting them four or five defeats away from minority status.

In other words, the Republicans’ control of the upper house of the Legislature – which they have held for 65 of the last 66 years – depends increasingly on the staying power of septuagenarians.

In New York City, for example, Mr. Marchi, 70-year-old Frank Padavan of Queens, and 71-year-old Serphin Maltese of Queens all represent districts where Democrats outnumber Republicans.

Republicans can be fairly confident of retaining Mr. Marchi’s seat. The Democrats’ enrollment advantage over the GOP in his 24th district is relatively narrow, at 40% to 35%. And Staten Island has a tradition of electing Republicans, including several members of the Assembly and City Council who would be viable candidates for the Senate.

It’s a different story in Queens. There the Democrats have enrollment advantages of better than 2-1, and the Republicans lack the farm team of lower-ranking elected officials to replace Messrs. Padavan or Maltese when they retire.

The Republicans could also be vulnerable on Long Island. Senator Caesar Trunzo, 78, and Senator Owen Johnson, 75, both represent districts with Republican pluralities. But Democrats in that area of the state have been surging, and now rule the governments of both Nassau and Suffolk counties. The Democratic minority leader of the Senate, David Paterson of Harlem, has already said he intends to target Republican senators from Long Island in the 2006 elections.

In the suburbs north of New York City, Senator Thomas Morahan of Rockland and Orange counties, who is 73, also represents a district with more Democrats than Republicans.

Mr. Bruno could try to protect his majority by arranging for members from swing districts to leave office midterm, so their replacements would be chosen in special elections. This tends to hold down voter turnout, which usually works to advantage of GOP candidates. It doesn’t always happen that way, however: When longtime Senator Roy Goodman of Manhattan stepped down in 2002 (at the age of 72) to become chairman of the United Nations Development Corporation, the voters of the East Side rejected his would-be Republican successor, Assemblyman John Ravitz, in favor of a Democrat, Liz Krueger.

Another strategy Mr. Bruno has used in the past to shore up his majority is recruiting Democrats to switch parties. But Republicans might be having second thoughts about that tactic. Earlier this month, two of the Republican senators who lost their seats this month were former Democrats – Olga Mendez of East Harlem and Nancy Larraine Hoffmann of the Syracuse area. And two other Democrats recruited by run on the Republican line by Mr. Bruno, Assemblyman Stephen Kaufman of the Bronx and Albany County Comptroller Michael Connors, lost by wide margins.

Of course, the Democrats have vulnerabilities of their own. The candidate who beat Ms. Hoffmann, David Valesky, only narrowly won a three-way race, with a Conservative candidate drawing away Republican votes, and his district has more Republicans than Democrats. If they can unite behind a single candidate, Republicans will have good chance of reclaiming that seat in 2006.

As for the senior members of the majority, they won’t necessarily retire on a schedule that’s convenient for the Democrats. The director of government affairs at the Business Council of New York State, Elliott Shaw, says the elderly senators he works with show little sign of slowing down.

“I think the vast majority, almost to a person, find the job really rewarding,” Mr. Shaw said. “This is what they’ve always wanted to do. Most of them have a high level of energy and enthusiasm and really seem to like the job….There are not too many people who don’t want to finish out what they’ve set out to do.”