Speculation Grows that Mayor Bloomberg will Enter Presidential race as an Independent

It is starting to look like New York mayor Michael Bloomberg may enter the 2008 presidential race as an Independent. He will be self financing his campaign and it is reported he will be willing to spend one billion dollars of his own money.

Reports that Bloomberg, New York’s Republican mayor, is willing to spend a big chunk of his personal fortune — perhaps as much as $1 billion — on a White House run set off a new round of speculation about his intentions and his possible impact on the November 2008 election.

The speculation was egged on by Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a conservative Republican and Iraq war opponent who also is considering an independent bid and had dinner with Bloomberg recently.

It also sounds like Chuck Hagel might be willing to run on the ticket with him. It’s hard for me to decide which party this would hurt more. Bloomberg is socially liberal so I don’t know how many Republican voters would switch to him, although the top teir Republicans I wouldn’t call true conservatives. And with the perceived anger of Democrats at George W Bush, I can’t believe many of them would vote for a Republican, although he is a former Democrat.

This would seem to add a very intriguing aspect to the race.

A liberal on social issues with a strong track record as a manager and businessman, Bloomberg would probably pull votes from both parties, Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said.

He would be simply hoping that the anger of voters who are fed up with both parties would translate into people voting for him.

A third-party bid would hope to take advantage of public discontent with the Republican and Democratic parties, which already has led 60,000 people to sign up for an Internet-based movement aimed at fielding a bipartisan independent ticket in 2008.

But

“Americans like the idea of third parties, but as we’ve seen repeatedly they are pretty well satisfied with the two-party system,” said public opinion analyst Karlyn Bowman of the conservative American Enterprise Institute

Historically when voters actually get in the booth not many of them actually vote for a third party candidate.

This would make for an interesting dynamic in the ’08 election though and warrents keeping an eye on.