NEW YORK : New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Tuesday that he would leave the Republican Party, in a manoeuvre seen as possible preparation for launching an independent presidential bid in 2008.
"I have filed papers with the New York City Board of Elections to change my status as a voter and register as unaffiliated with any political party," he said in a statement.
"Although my plans for the future haven't changed, I believe this brings my affiliation into alignment with how I have led and will continue to lead our city," the billionaire businessman who was elected as a Republican.
Bloomberg spent millions of his own dollars to be elected mayor, and would likely do so again if he ran for the US presidency.
"A non-partisan approach has worked wonders in New York: We've balanced budgets, grown our economy, improved public health, reformed the school system and made the nation's safest city even safer," the statement said.
Bloomberg, 65, has repeatedly denied he is interested in running for president, saying he will serve out his mayoral term ending in late 2009, but his protests have done little to silence the media buzz.
A Wall Street trader who went on to found the global financial news service that bears his name, Bloomberg has proved a popular mayor of the United States' largest city.
Although he ran for mayor as a Republican, his liberal stances on abortion, gun control and gay marriage make him an appealing candidate to many Democrats.
Several recent reports have suggested Bloomberg would enter the campaign if he thought he could win a three-way contest.
If the other two candidates in the race are the current 2008 front-runners Republican Rudy Giuliani and Democrat Hillary Clinton, moreover, it would become an all-New York contest: Giuliani preceded Bloomberg as New York city's mayor, and Clinton is one of the state's two senators.
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AFP
