What a relief that the 2005 elections are finally over. At last, we can kick back, relax and ...

... start thinking about the 2006 elections.

Yeah, I know, it’s a sickness being such a politics junkie, but I just can’t help it.

The most intriguing candidate next year might not even be a candidate at all, but stranger things have happened than Oneonta Mayor Kim Muller becoming the next lieutenant governor of the state of New York.

Here’s the scenario:

Unless something absolutely disastrous happens to crusading New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, he will be elected governor next November. He wants the job, which is just swell with his fellow Democrats, and the Republicans have no one who could give him any serious competition.

While the governor and lieutenant governor are elected separately, it’s fair to say that the person Eliot Spitzer wants to be lieutenant governor will be lieutenant governor.

"There will be tremendous deference to his choice, should he decide to make one," Bob Master, a political director at the Communications Workers of America, told The New York Times.

Spitzer could do a whole lot worse than to anoint Kim Muller.

She’s attractive and articulate, and in 2006 will be a popular former mayor who left office on her own terms after handily winning two elections. Spitzer’s a downstate guy. Muller’s an upstate Democrat who has already endorsed his candidacy.

He’s Jewish, and she is not. In ethnicity-conscious New York politics, where U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, comptroller Alan Hevesi, attorney general candidate Richard Brodsky and Spitzer are all Jewish males, having a gentile woman as a running mate counts as serious balance in a statewide campaign.

When you think about it, a Spitzer-Muller ticket sounds terribly logical, doesn’t it?

So, last week, I called Ryan Toohey, Spitzer’s campaign manager, and asked him about Kim Muller.

"Eliot knows her," Toohey said. "He knows who she is, and he likes her a lot."

Toohey, of course, went on to say all the right things about how Spitzer has given hardly any thought to next year’s election and how he has no specific timetable for stating a preference for a lieutenant governor candidate and how he’s "just watching the process going on and waiting."

Which is funny, because that’s pretty similar to what Muller said when I called her to ask if she had any interest in being lieutenant governor.

"I’m just watching what’s happening right now," she said.

Still, she said she does have an interest.

"It would be a wonderful opportunity to work with Eliot, who is absolutely a top-notch guy," she said.

I have no doubt Muller would be an enthusiastic lieutenant governor, which is a good thing, because she would need all the enthusiasm she could muster.

The post’s only official duties under the state constitution are to serve as president of the state Senate, acting governor if the guv is out of state or becomes disabled, and to become governor if the governor dies or resigns.

The lieutenant governor also serves on the impeachment court, the state defense council and on the Board of Trustees of the College of Forestry.

That’s it.

Of course, governors often give lieutenant governors specific tasks, such as upstate economic or educational projects. Muller said she would look forward to working on whatever Spitzer wanted her to do, which would presumably include a lot or ribbon-cuttings and openings of supermarkets.

Here’s Muller’s potential competition, so far:

• Dr. Jon Cohen, the chief medical officer of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, has raised half a million dollars for his one-issue health-care campaign. But being another downstate Jew won’t help his candidacy.

• Lawyer Leecia Eve, a Harvard grad daughter of a former deputy speaker of the Assembly, has raised about $200,000. Being from upstate (Buffalo) will help her. So is the fact that she’s black. She headed Hillary Clinton’s homeland security advisory team, but Eve has never held elective office, and that could hurt her chances.

• Assemblyman Thomas P. DiNapoli is from Great Neck, Long Island, which wouldn’t help a Spitzer ticket upstate.

• Joseph Ruggiero is a little-known — at least statewide — supervisor in the town of Wappinger in Dutchess County.

• Bethaida "Bea" Gonzalez, president of the Syracuse Common Council, could be a strong candidate. She’s from upstate, has an impressive teaching and administrative background at Syracuse University, and her Spanish surname couldn’t hurt.

If Muller is serious, she’ll have to start raising some money. Coincidentally — or perhaps not — "Friends of Kim Muller" are holding a "Farewell Gala" for the mayor Nov. 26 at the National Soccer Hall of Fame. The $25 admission price gets you some "hearty hors d’oeuvres," dessert, live music and access to a cash bar.

Who knows? This could be the start of something big.

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Sam Pollak is editor of The Daily Star. He can be reached at spollak@thedailystar.com or at (607) 432-1000, ext. 208.