With Tuesday marking the one year anniversary of the disclosure that then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer had an affair with a high-priced call girl, looking back at the last year seems appropriate. It has been a roller coaster ride in state politics for some time and it looks to continue for another year.

The last 27 months have shown how topsy-turvy New York's political landscape has become. First there was the forced resignation of Comptroller Alan Hevesi in late December 2006. He was replaced by then Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli. A year ago, Lt. Gov. David Paterson, little known outside of Harlem and political circles was thrust into the governor's mansion, after Spitzer had been in office less than 15 months. His accession left a vacancy in the lieutenant governor's office.

Within three months of that, then-Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, who held the post for more than a dozen years, decided to step down and has since been indicted. His successor, Sen. Dean Skelos was majority leader for only about five months before his party narrowly lost its majority status for the first time in more than three decades.

His successor as majority leader, Sen. Malcolm Smith, holds onto his post by a tenuous two-vote majority. November also saw President-elect Barack Obama ask New York's junior senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton, to become his secretary of state with the resulting appointment of Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand, who will have to seek election in the fall of 2010 to keep her seat and then again in 2012. Continuing the domino effect of all these changes, there is a fair chance that her House seat may now be won in a special election, at the end of this month, by Assemblyman James Tedisco.

So, with the exception of Sen. Charles H. Schumer, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a majority of the top political positions in both the Democratic and Republican parties has changed in 27 months.

If that isn't change enough, by the end of next year, less than 21 months away, New York's political landscape could change even further. With Paterson's poll numbers plummeting, there is a likelihood that he will either be challenged for the Democratic nomination in early 2010 or withdraw from the race. Gillibrand already has at least one probable opponent, Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, who dislikes her stand on guns, on top of a GOP challenge. She or the governor also may see that Cuomo wants to leave his current post and move into the governor's mansion or back to Washington, where he once served in President Bill Clinton's cabinet.

So expect the political roller coaster ride to continue.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com