ALBANY—If you thought the past week at the state Capitol was insane, buckle up.

A nightmare scenario is developing in which the Senate could find itself in a 31-31 split between warring partisan factions with—thanks to Eliot Spitzer’s sexual liaisons—no lieutenant governor in office to break the tie.

With one of two Democrats involved in this week’s GOP-led coup wavering under pressure to rejoin the Democratic conference, the sides are already quietly discussing among themselves how the business of government might get done if a deadlock is created.

The real possibility of such a situation leaves two options: Will there be gridlock of the kind that would make child’s play of the usual Albany partisan roadblocks? Or will the Senate Republicans and Democrats be forced to come together in a historic power sharing arrangement?

Without a power sharing deal, the Senate would be out of business because neither side could get the needed 32 votes for a quorum to even hold a session—ending any talk of dealing with issues like the state’s high property taxes or an assortment of bills localities are relying on Albany to approve.

But what form would this power sharing take? Would it be like some national governments in which everything from committee posts to decisions about which bills get to the floor are the product of forced compromise and highly detailed agreements laying out the rules of the chamber? Or would it be a temporary, handshake deal to take care of the must-do list of bills and then get out of Albany quickly?

“If we go to a 31-31 Senate, negotiations will take place on everything until the next election,” said Sen. Antoine Thompson, D-Buffalo, referring to the 2010 elections. “I don’t think it would be a mess. I think it would be pretty tough.”

One veteran Senate staffer said there is no chance the sides could agree to a formal, long-term power sharing deal. “These guys would have knives out for each other at every turn,” the source said.

“Everything would be on the short-term, emergency kind of power sharing. And the only way to make it work is to get two or four people in a room and agree to do x, y and z bills just for these coming weeks,” the source added.

In a saga with many unresolved issues, a key one exists: There is still a dispute over who leads the Senate right now. The Democrats say—including in court papers—that Republicans on Monday illegally elected renegade Democratic Sen. Pedro Espada of the Bronx as the new Senate president in a move that, along with the support of Democratic Sen. Hiram Monserrate, brought the Republicans back to power. Democrats believe Monserrate is now ready to flip back to their camp.

In their court papers, the Democrats say Sen. Malcolm Smith is still the Senate president, as well as majority leader. If the matter can’t be resolved internally because of a 31-31 split, then that will increase pressure on the courts to resolve the fight—something judges loathe to get involved in because the issue involves a separate branch of government and internal rules of the Senate. A state judge will hear arguments from both sides Monday on the dispute.

The plot thickens, though. Smith is expected to be ousted by his fellow Democrats who are angry over the coup; Democrats met Friday and Smith would not answer questions whether he is still the leader.

The Democrats and Republicans will be back in court Monday—a state judge on Friday told the two sides to try to work things out over the weekend—to settle the leadership fight. If Democrats win, Smith would retain the title of senate president until a new resolution is approved giving it to his replacement. So, imagine this scenario: Democrats oust Smith as leader but, if a 31-31 split happens, there are not enough votes to approve his replacement so he would legally keep the title.

The implications go far beyond the insider’s world of Albany. There are dozens of major and minor bills that have to get done before the session ends; many involve measures that localities are counting on. For instance, a number of counties could lose hundreds of millions of dollars if their sales tax laws expire. In Buffalo, the next phase of a school construction program cannot continue without Senate action. The state’s Power for Jobs program used for low-cost energy by hundreds of companies is also expiring. And more than 8,000 state jobs hang in the balance because Gov. David

A. Paterson struck a deal with state worker unions to avoid layoffs in return for changes to the pension system. But Senate approval is needed.

Even if Monserrate flips back to the Democrats, it does not alter last Monday’s coup vote installing Espada as president unless the courts intervene.

“There will be power sharing,” Robert Ward, deputy director of the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, said if a 31-31 tie happens.

“People across the state are clearly very angry about the mess in Albany right now, and the Legislature recognizes that and don’t like to be in that position. So they’re going to want to get themselves out of that box in some way,” Ward added.

“I think there wouldn’t be a leader. It’d probably alternate every day until the next election or someone retires or leaves for whatever reason,” Thompson said.

Power sharing and Albany do not fit neatly in many sentences. “It’s not in the Senate’s political DNA to work in a bipartisan manner. Whether or not they can evolve to deal with that remains to be seen,” said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

In a Legislature that’s seen its share of lawmakers in legal trouble, the “whatever reason” cited by Thompson is always possible. Monserrate, for instance, was indicted earlier this year, accused of slashing his girlfriend’s face with a broken glass.

The last time the Senate shuttered for business was for five weeks in 1965 during a leadership fight among Democrats. But Ward noted the Legislature today is far more important than it was four decades ago. Back then, the Legislature did not have direct control over hundreds of millions of dollars worth of state spending and there was no joint legislative-gubernatorial panel that has to approve billions in economic development projects.

While the Senate has created its own mess, there is a twisted sense that Albany is also seeing the final legacy of Eliot Spitzer. Horner believes Spitzer helped create the environment to turn the Senate to Democratic rule last fall.

But his visits to prostitutes that led to his stepping down as governor also elevated Paterson from lieutenant governor —thereby leaving vacant the second-in-command job that has, as one of its duties, breaking tie votes in the Senate.

“We certainly wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for the implosion of the Spitzer administration,” Horner said.