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For Malcolm Smith, the future is bright.

Elected Senate Minority Leader when David Paterson left the senate to become Lieutenant Governor – and later Governor, Malcolm spent the better part of the last two years preparing for this past Tuesday.

It was a dream come true – almost. As a Democrat in the Senate, under the reign of Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, you couldn’t get anything done. The Republicans ruled the roost. Bruno stepped down a few months ago, Dean Skelos from Long Island took over and the Democrats watched, waited, and raised millions of dollars to focus on a handful of races in hopes of shifting the balance of power. After all, Republicans outnumbered Democrats 31-29 in the Senate. A two-seat change could have made all the difference in the world.

Those seats came Tuesday night, when Councilman Joe Addabbo (D-Ozone Park) defeated Republican Sen. Serphin Maltese (R-Glendale) and when incumbent Long Island Republican Cesar Trunzo was soundly defeated by Democrat Brian Foley. There are at least three other races still contested, with votes too close to be called.

Smith – who until Tuesday night led the minority caucus in the Senate, is now the Majority Leader – one of the three most important men in New York State. He becomes one of Albany’s “Three Men in a Room,” along with the Governor and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

But his power is already in jeopardy, as a quartet of Democrats, including newly elected Sen. Hiram Monserrate of Jackson Heights, has said they may not be under the influence of the Majority Leader – a concern that could leave the Senate without a majority, but in turn could foster a genuine bipartisan atmosphere within the Senate.

Smith, if he is concerned, has not shown it. He is intent on focusing on the state’s current fiscal crisis. Smith and many of the Senate Democrats met Wednesday afternoon to hammer out a budget response to the Governor, who has asked that the Legislature find ways to cut $2 billion from the current budget. Overall, the state is facing a $12 billion shortfall next year and $46 billion over the next four years.

“We’ve got to get spending under control,” Smith said Wednesday. “The Republicans have allowed it to get out of hand. We need to rebuild the economy in New York, to focus on jobs, to come up with solutions for small businesses.”

“We learned from one of our recent crises in the state that you have to diversify the portfolio of New York so that when one part doesn’t function, the other can,” Smith added.

He said that changing the way the Senate works is a task important to the citizens of New York.

“I think [reform can be made] just as how we won the Senate – one step at a time,” he said. “The first thing is to reform an antiquated senate and bring it into the 21st century. We need to start to work with our partners in the Assembly. We are going to have a much more open and transparent government.”

Prior to Democrat control, Dems who wanted to get bills passed in the Senate had to get support from the Republicans Majority Leader to get bills brought to floor. Often that process was near impossible because of collusion between the leaders in the Senate and the Assembly. Bills, no matter the value, turned into highly politicized struggles, often failing to see the light of day if not supported by party leaders.

“We have some long-standing bills that we will finally get a chance to discuss,” Smith said. “This will be a Senate with members who will have the opportunity to move bills from their committees to the floor.”

Smith also says he plans to partner with President-elect Barack Obama on helping solve issues that are the same from state to state, such as foreclosures, which have been the highest statewide in Southeast Queens.

“Given the conversations I have had with some of [Obama’s] team, I can see myself being in Washington in a short period of time talking about a stimulus package that might be important to New York,” Smith said. He also added that the state may mirror an objective of Obama’s – a moratorium on foreclosures.

Overall, Smith sees the change in majority as positive for the whole state. “I think it means the same things for Queens as it does for the other 17 million people that are in the State of New York, though he added that the future of Belmont Racetrack just over the Queens border, may mirror that of Aqueduct, which he said has been a great success.

“Aqueduct was important for Queens,” Smith said. “It will create several thousand jobs for Queens, and specifically for minority and woman-owned businesses.” The developer and one of the equity partners in the project are minority owned businesses.

Looking forward to see just how strong Smith’s majority is, the Majority Leader said there are still seats in Western New York that may end up converted to Democrats, as well as one in Queens.

Frank Padavan, the last Republican to hold any office in the borough, faces a recount expected to begin Friday, with a winner to possibly be decided by early next week. The unofficial election tally had Padavan beating challenger Jim Gennaro by 723 votes with 82,917 counted.