The hearts of pundits and opinion makers across the nation are all aflutter following Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s announcement last week that he has shed his Republican coat of arms and has embraced the mantra of no party, registering himself as an independent.

“A nonpartisan 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,” said Bloomberg when he made the announcement. “We have achieved real progress by overcoming the partisanship that too often puts narrow interests above the common good. As a political independent, I will continue to work with those in all political parties to find common ground, to put partisanship aside and to achieve real solutions to the challenges we face.”

Publicly, everybody is excited. State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno said that he did not expect his strong working relationship with Bloomberg to change. Democrats across the state are joking that it should be no surprise that anyone would want to leave the Republican Party. Assemblyman Jose Rivera, the Bronx’s Democratic Party strongman, even issued a statement publicly urging Bloomberg to do more than be independent and come back to the his old party. Bloomberg called the Democratic Party home until 2001. But with his mayoral ambitions threatened by a strong primary election, he switched to Republican to clear a path to the general election.

When Bloomberg changes his political party stripes, it is never due to ideology, but always due to political expedience. For months the chatter around City Hall has been that Bloomberg will jump into the presidential race as an independent if the circumstances are just right. The party switch sends a clear message to insiders that Bloomberg ’08 is set to launch—regardless of how many times the mayor denies it.

Two people who are heard to be extremely disappointed in Bloomberg’s switch are Senator Hillary Clinton and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, both of whom occupy the front-runner position in the presidential primaries and both of whom stand to lose votes should they square off with Bloomberg in 2008. According to several State Assembly staff members, that body is loath to help Bloomberg build up his resume so that he might use it to battle Clinton. That means that much of his legislative agenda now and in the future is set to die in the Assembly, starting with his congestion pricing scheme.

“This hurts congestion pricing,” said one assembly staffer. “I’d be really surprised if it passes after this. He should have waited a few weeks, at least.” Another assembly staffer agreed. “This move really put the nail in the coffin on congestion pricing,” he said. “If the perception is that he will take votes from Hillary, why would any of us help him do that.” He added that not just the congestion pricing scheme, but other future legislative items, could now find themselves dead in the water.

There are similar rumblings in Congress, where members wonder why President George W. Bush, a Republican, would go the extra mile for the benefit of a man who has abandoned his party. As for the Republicans at home, a Democratic State Senate staffer surmised that Bruno, despite his public face, will become less and less willing to aid Bloomberg in his quest for results. Not only has he left Bruno’s party, he’s also aligning himself against New York GOP presidential favorite Giuliani. Though Bruno is already committed to support the congestion charge, other items on the Bloomberg agenda might be shut down in the future. “Bruno does him a lot of favors,” said the staffer. “I’m sure he’s not happy about this.”

One thing that Bloomberg has in spades is money, and any campaign for president will almost certainly be self-financed. In both of his mayoral campaigns Bloomberg spent around $80 million to ensure victory, an amount that allowed him to keep a rather significant number of people on staff across the five boroughs.

Money is the easiest way to keep friends, and if you haven’t already been picked up by either of the hometown campaigns, Bloomberg will probably be waiting for you when the time is right, check in hand. Defying Bloomberg now, despite your current allegiance, could prevent future largesse.

“A lot of these Democrats have already supported him,” said another Democratic State Senate staffer. “They’ll be around to help him, as long as they know he’ll pay money.”