Bloomberg mulls a $1 billion run

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is prepared to spend an unprecedented $1 billion of his own $5.8 billion personal fortune for a third-party presidential campaign, Ralph Z. Hallow will report Tuesday in The Washington Times.

“He has set aside $1 billion to go for it,” a long-time business adviser to Mr. Bloomberg tells The Times. “The thinking about where it will come from and do we have it is over, and the answer is yes, we can do it.”

The $1 billion would represent about one-fifth of Mr. Bloomberg’s personal fortune.

“Mike has been meeting with Ross Perot’s most senior people about how they did an independent run in 1992,” the Bloomberg business adviser said.

Republicans tell The Times that they are taking the Bloomberg threat seriously, while the mayor’s associates say they are fielding calls from staffers for Republican Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, which the Bloomberg adviser compared to “a biplane on fire and spiraling down.”