Now that former state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos has been forced to relinquish his Senate seat after being convicted last week on corruption charges, the balance of power in the State Senate is once again in flux. Zack Fink filed the following report.

With the conviction of Dean Skelos, Republicans have a lost a critical seat in the New York state Senate. The GOP no longer holds an absolute majority in the Senate, meaning that once again, they have to make deals with some renegade Democrats.

That's good news for the five breakaway Democrats who make up a group known as the Independent Democratic Conference, known in Albany as the IDC.

"Yes, we still have our coalition. But Republicans do have 31 duly elected Republicans now, and, of course, Simcha Felder makes 32, who sits with the Republican conference," said state Senator Jeff Klein, the head of the IDC.

With Skelos' empty seat, there are currently 25 Democrats in the Senate, 31 Republicans and the five-member IDC. Another Democrat, Brooklyn's Simcha Felder, votes with the Republicans. Looking purely in how votes are cast, the chamber looks more like 25 Democrats and 37 Republican coalition members.

"The Senate has been anything but stable for the last several years. And what I'm trying to do, what the Democratic conference is trying to do, is bring the stability that people in the state want so that we can accomplish things on their behalf," Klein said.

Michael Gianaris and fellow Democrats are confident that they can retake the chamber in elections next year.

"Democrats are on their way," Gianaris said. "We have a big election year coming up next year. In addition to filling this vacancy, we are optimistic that with Hilary at the top of the ticket, we are going to have a good year in 2016."

As of now, Klein is committed to keeping his coalition with Republicans.

"We want to continue to do that," Klein said. "We want to make sure government works, and if we can work with Democrats or Republicans to get things done, that is how we have been successful.

Governor Andrew Cuomo has tentatively called a special election for April, but even if Democrats pick up the Skelos seat, that still won't fundamentally change the balance of power in the state Senate. Thirty-two seats is the magic number to control the chamber, and Republicans have that with Felder.