Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire businessman and mayor of New York, is secretly building the financial and organisational foundations of an audacious third-party presidential candidacy that would transform the 2008 race for the White House.
A recent poll gave Mr Bloomberg a 73 per cent approval rating among New Yorkers “He wants to do this, he thinks he could win it and he thinks he could be a great president,” said a source closely connected to the mayor’s inner circle.
“Mike Bloomberg has got $500 million to spend and he is supremely confident.”
The Daily Telegraph has established that a senior aide to Mr Bloomberg has held three lunch meetings, two of them last month, with officials from the Independence Party during which there were detailed discussions of how a third-party bid could be launched.
Kevin Sheekey, Mr Bloomberg’s special adviser and chief political strategist, first met Frank MacKay, New York chair of the Independence Party, for exploratory talks in November at Manhattan’s Four Seasons hotel.
Two further lunch meetings, over steak and seafood at Bobby Van’s restaurant on Broad Street in Manhattan, took place in quick succession early last month.
The two men were joined by Tom Connolly, state vice chair of the Independence Party. At the most recent lunch, another Bloomberg political consultant dropped by for part of the meeting which, like the others, took place at the Bloomberg camp’s request.
A centrist Bloomberg candidacy could seriously damage Hillary Clinton if she emerged as the Democratic nominee. But a conservative Republican nominee such as John McCain, Mitt Romney or Fred Thompson, who has yet to enter the race, could also stand to lose millions of votes to him.
Ross Perot, who secured 19 per cent of the vote in 1992, is widely credited with enabling Bill Clinton to defeat President George Bush Snr.
Mr Bloomberg would be likely to run as a social liberal and fiscal conservative with signature issues such as environmentalism and gun control.
Mr MacKay declined to confirm or deny whether the meetings had happened but said that he thought Mr Bloomberg would make an “excellent candidate” in 2008.
“It’s a wide-open field. This is a unique time.
“The Democrats winning the House and the Senate sets up a polarising situation. There’s going to be a lot of conflict between Nancy Pelosi [Speaker of the House of Representatives and a Democrat] and George Bush and people are going to have their fill of it.”
Running as an independent candidate is a formidable organisational undertaking because of the different rules across the country about being allowed on the ballot.
“I’m absolutely in touch with leaders in all 50 states who want a third party established,” said Mr MacKay.
“We are just waiting for the right candidate.”
Mr Bloomberg, 65, has publicly denied he is seeking the presidency while clearly enjoying the speculation. He was re-elected mayor in 2005 and a recent poll gave him a 73 per cent approval rating among New Yorkers.
His financial information company Bloomberg is believed to be worth about $20 billion, making his personal stake some $13 billion - a fortune that would give him the launching pad to compete easily even in what is certain to be the most expensive election in US history.
Only this week Mr Bloomberg relaunched the website www.mikebloomberg.com that he used to run for mayor in 2001 and 2005. Almost identical in style to sites being used by declared presidential candidates, it includes links to articles that examine his credentials as a third-party candidate.
Earlier this year in an interview with Fortune magazine, Mr Bloomberg talked about his future saying “assuming I’m not living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue” - the address of the White House.
Mr Bloomberg is understood to waiting until next February to see who will emerge as the Republican and Democratic nominees before making a final decision.
Mr MacKay said: “The fly in the ointment for Bloomberg would be Giuliani because he is moderate to Left when you look at Republicans. Bloomberg would be squeezed.
“He needs a Fred Thompson or a Mitt Romney or even a John McCain. Anyone coming from the Right could leave someone like Mike Bloomberg a tremendous amount of room to get that middle ground.”
A Bloomberg company source said that Mr Bloomberg had made preparations to borrow enough money against his stake in the company to fund a presidential campaign.
“When the mayoral race was being considered, people said he would be crazy to do it and he had no chance. Then he won. He’s got a financial plan for 2008 and he’s ready to pull the trigger.”
Stu Loeser, Mr Bloomberg’s spokesman, confirmed that meetings with the Independence Party took place but said that they were about the general issue of how a third-party presidential candidate could compete in 2008.
“The meetings are recent but it’s not the first time we’ve spoken about supporting independent candidacies,” he said.
“The mayor thinks the speculation is very flattering but he’s not running for president. His next career will be as a full-time philanthropist.”
He added: “People read presidential motives into a lot of what he’s doing...but the speculation is good for him and it’s very good for the city. It’s an advantage that he’s more than happy to exploit.”
A political operative who has spoken to senior Bloomberg aides, said: “This is as dead serious as a heart attack. If they are not serious, then these people are the greatest actors, the best showmen I’ve ever seen. They are talking minutiae. They’ve done tons of research and looked into this very deeply.”
(For more from The Telegraph, click HERE.)