Despite bungling, do Democrats have a permanent lock on the state Senate? Probably.

Here’s how bad things are for New York’s Republicans:  They lost power in the state Senate two years ago and the place has been a train wreck ever since.

Even some Democrats I talk to lament the good old days when Joe Bruno was running the place — despite the fact that he was apparently lining his pockets in the process.

But the GOP appears further from retaking a majority than ever.  How come?

Mostly, it’s just the simple fact that there are heaps and piles and mounds more Democrats in New York than Republicans.

Even in Upstate New York and the North Country, Democrats now win handily — case in point being Darrel Aubertine.

Republicans held off this tide of blue votes through two forces:  gerrymandering and incumbency.

Critics have described New York state’s Senate map as a “Republican protection program” designed to elect as many GOP lawmakers as possible.

But even that’s not working any more.

And now the seniority problem is haunting them as well, as more of those seniors are shuffling toward the door.  Dale Volker, Vincent Leiball and Thomas Morahan are all retiring.

In each of those races, the Democrats have a decent chance of capturing the seat.

Obviously, this one-party rule thing isn’t working out so well.  And it has been increasingly difficult for North Country leaders to get their issues on the Albany agenda.

But it’s hard to see how Republicans turn the tide.  One possibility is to reinvent itself as a truly moderate, Rockefeller-style party:  pro-choice, pro-same-sex marriage, but fairly fiscally conservative.

That seems to have worked pretty well for folks like Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg, both of whom were elected mayor of New York City as Republicans.

But it’s tough these days for any Republican to tack toward the left.  The verb ‘scozzafava’d’ was, after all, coined right here in the North County.

Any Republican lawmaker proposing that kind of political triangulation would draw immediate fire from the Conservative Party.

What are the alternatives?  The hope in Republican circles appears to be that Democrats will screw it up so badly — do such a horrendous job — that voters will have no alternative but to put them back in power.

So far that doesn’t appear to be working out very well.  Governor David Paterson is widely disliked — but an overwhelming majority of New Yorkers say they want another Democrat to fill his shoes.

The window for Republicans to win back a little power appears to be closing.  After the 2010 census, the state Senate map will be redrawn.

Lines that are currently very favorable to the GOP will, at the very least, be drawn more neutrally.

But Democrats are unlikely to eschew a little gerrymandering of their own.  Despite their horrible track record, the Senate Democrats could be on track for even bigger majorities in the years ahead.