NEW YORK (AP)  -- For a long time, Mayor Michael Bloomberg seemed to despise the very notion of changing a voter-approved law that restricts elected officeholders to two terms in office.


Al Jones Reports

When a bill reached his desk in 2002 that would have extended the terms for some officials, he vetoed it. He said the proposed law was wrong because elected officials shouldn't be changing rules to benefit themselves politically.

But Bloomberg now appears to have reversed himself. He wants to change the law and run for a third term.

A person who has been briefed on the matter told The Associated Press that Bloomberg will announce Thursday that he will seek to overturn the term-limit law and run for another four years. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement hasn't been made.

The former chief executive officer who started his career on Wall Street will cite the nation's precarious economic situation as the reason that New York needs a tested financial manager to stay on and guide the city, the person said.

Bloomberg has been wrestling with the decision for the past couple months and only made up his mind over the weekend, the person said.

The individual close to the mayor said his plan is to go through the City Council to extend the law to allow a third term because it is too late to get the issue on this year's ballot.

Bloomberg quickly drew the scorn of term-limits supporters.

Mark Green, the former city public advocate who lost to Bloomberg in 2001, called the move ``an antidemocratic, unfeeling, power grab.'' Green said civic and labor officials had already been talking about mounting a pro-term-limits campaign should Bloomberg seek to overturn the law.

``He's picked a fight. And now he'll get one,'' he said.

The New York Times said in an editorial published on its Web site Tuesday that it supports the idea of abolishing the term limits law: ``The law is particularly unappealing now because it is structured in a way that would deny New Yorkers _ at a time when the city's economy is under great stress _ the right to decide for themselves whether an effective and popular mayor should stay in office.''

The Daily News also said it supported a third term for Bloomberg. ``Go for it, Mike,'' an editorial in Wednesday editions of the newpaper implored. ``Go for it wholeheartedly, without reservation.''

The city's other major tabloid, the New York Post, said earlier this week that it supported the idea.

Bloomberg, who founded the financial information company Bloomberg LP and whose worth is estimated at $20 billion, spent some $155 million on his first two campaigns, winning re-election by 20 percentage points in 2005. His former campaign teams are said to be standing by for a third round, according to the individual.

Bloomberg's change of heart comes amid the nation's worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The turmoil has dealt a serious blow to the city's economy, which relies heavily on Wall Street profits for its tax base.

The decision follows a year in which he toyed with a White House bid, drawing constant speculation, before ultimately deciding against it.

If Bloomberg did seek another term, it will be politically risky, however. Polls have shown that the public supports the idea of term limits, and Bloomberg himself vetoed a bill in 2002 that would have extended the terms for some officials. At the time, he said the proposed law was wrong because it amounted to changing the rules for personal political gain.

Chris Kelley, associate director of the government watchdog group Common Cause New York, accused Bloomberg of attempting to subvert the will of the voters.

``If there's a discussion that needs to be had about term limits, the mayor has had years in office during which we could have had a public discussion,'' he said. ``We are now faced with a situation where we are looking at economic crisis and massive turnover at City Hall ... and to make an end-run around the voters' choice is just incredibly disappointing.''

Any change in the law would send shock waves through the ranks of the city's politicians, many of whom have been campaigning for different jobs, including Bloomberg's. The law currently on the books will force Bloomberg from office at the end of next year, as well as the city comptroller, two-thirds of the city council and the city's public advocate.

Democrats lining up to run include city Comptroller William Thompson, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Rep. Anthony Weiner and city Councilman Anthony Avella. On the GOP side are supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis and lawyer Bruce Blakeman.

John Collins, a spokesman for Weiner, said the news did not change the Queens congressman's intention to run and ``offer a vision of how to fight for the middle class and those struggling to make it.''

``This is highly speculative,'' Collins added. ``It's illegal to run for a third term.''

Thompson called Bloomberg's plan a ``terrible idea.''

``This isn't about a person,'' he said. ``Other leaders could move this city forward also.''

A spokeswoman for Quinn said she was out of the office and unavailable for comment.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani floated the idea of a three-month extension to his term to ease the transition of power. He also suggested overturning the city's term-limits law, but ultimately decided against it. Even in the wake of the attacks, with Giuliani's approval rating at 90 percent, one poll found that 55 percent of New York City voters opposed repealing term limits.

In 2006, Bloomberg scoffed at the notion that an individual could be truly irreplaceable.

``My experience in business has been, whenever we've had somebody who was irreplaceable, their successor invariably did a better job, and I think change is good,'' he said. ``Yes, you throw out an occasional good person, but you also throw out a lot of people who have just gotten stale and take it for granted, haven't had any new ideas, so on balance I've always been a believer in term limits.''