This year's election may have been quiet, but next year, when we elect state legislators and a governor, there should be some fireworks. Will it do any good for us to go to the polls?

Obviously, we need change. New York, as a recent New York Times editorial put it, "is a national embarrassment, a swamp of intrigue and corruption, a $131 billion monster controlled by a crowd of smug officials whose main concern is keeping their soft jobs."

We've had a governor who resigned in the face of a prostitution scandal, a state comptroller who pleaded guilty to a felony. The former Senate majority leader is on trial, charged with using his powerful position to enrich himself. A Queens Assembly member resigned a few months ago and pleaded guilty to fraud.

And then, of course, there was June's Albany circus, with our own good-government crusader Tom Golisano engineering a brief Republican takeover of the Senate, persuading two Democrats to switch parties. One of the change artists was found guilty recently of assaulting his girlfriend. The other routinely ignores campaign finance requirements and is under investigation on accusations that he doesn't live in the district he represents and that he has diverted state funds into his own personal business.

State leaders' personal foibles are the least of our worries, though. Far more important are the mushrooming state budget, deficit, and debt. And the biggest embarrassment of all? State government in New York is a democracy in name only. The leaders of the Assembly and the Senate really run things. Ordinary members of the State Legislature are powerless; most do what they're told.

Once we elect legislators, it's almost impossible to get rid of them. The legislators themselves draw up the lines of each election district, and they draw them to protect themselves. New York's notoriously weak campaign-finance regulations let special interests - business groups, unions, wealthy individuals - buy loyalty and clout.

Incumbents dole out millions of taxpayer dollars as "member items" to pet recipients in their districts: medical, cultural, and educational institutions; youth projects; local governments. And the grateful recipients respond with public tributes.

Both Democrats and Republicans have been involved in these shenanigans. But the Democrats' voter-registration advantage is growing, and at some point, their tenuous hold on the Senate will be a dim memory and they'll be solidly in charge of the whole show. Only if you think New York Democratic leaders are saints can you think this is a good thing. (Five of the six officials I cited earlier were Democrats.)

What to do? Campaign-finance reform would be a good start, but the state legislature isn't likely to approve it. Having a non-partisan group draw the district lines might level the playing field for non-incumbents, but only slightly. The incumbents would still have the edge in campaign donations. And they'd still have their member items.

Kent Gardner at the Center for Governmental Research thinks that giving the governor more power would help. He agrees that the governor, like legislators, can be bought by special interests, but at least there's the potential for the governor to act independently.

The governor, says Gardner, is the only elected official "who looks out for the center, for the whole." Maybe a reform-minded governor could knock heads, shame the legislators into cleaning up the place. Maybe, says Gardner, a coalition of good-government groups could push reform. Maybe the media could endorse only the candidates who agree to specific reforms.

Gardner also thinks there could be hope in third parties. But building a strong third party takes time. New York's recent third-party history is pretty grim. And without campaign-finance reform, third-party candidates have almost no chance.

So I dunno. We're all upset, but I don't see anything changing unless party leaders suddenly find their conscience, or enough lowly legislators band together to force a change. Hope springs eternal. But then I go back and read the rap sheets on the leaders, and I despair.