More Bloomberg, Less Consulting

Here's yet one more group whose year Michael Bloomberg is about to ruin with his plan to seek a third term: the city's political consultants.

As Jerry Skurnik of Prime NY points out, if term limits are abolished or extended, many incumbents will run for their old seats, which means fewer competitive contested races, which means 2009 won't be the big payday consultants thought it would be.

"Yeah, it’s gonna cost consultants a lot of business," said Skurnik, whose main business is selling list of registered voters to both Democratic and Republican campaigns. Speaking of his colleagues, he added, "There's probably not going to be 40 or so seriously contested City Council races. And there’s not going to be four contested borough president races. It’s definitely changing my business plans."

On the upside, he went on, "It’s not like less money will be spent on politics, It’ll probably be more. It’ll just be from one candidate, not 40."