Bloomberg to attend '08 campaign "unity" talks

By JoAnne Allen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of U.S. political figures will meet next week to urge presidential candidates to close the partisan divide, the meeting's hosts said on Sunday, amid speculation New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will run as an independent.

Bloomberg, outgoing Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, both considered potential independent White House hopefuls, and more than a dozen current and retired lawmakers and others are scheduled to attend the closed-door discussions at the University of Oklahoma on January 7.

Eight Democrats and seven Republicans, many of whom have been campaigning for more than a year, are vying for the right to face off in the November 4 general election to choose a successor to Republican President George W. Bush, who will leave office after two terms.

Bloomberg, 65, has denied publicly that he intends to run for office but with a multi-billion-dollar fortune at his disposal, speculation about a bid has continued. In Monday's editions, The New York Times said Bloomberg's aides had been laying groundwork for a candidacy.

Former Oklahoma Sen. David Boren, one of the co-hosts of the meeting, told The Washington Post the meeting was not called to encourage any one person to run.

But in an interview with the Times, Boren said he would "be among those who would urge Mr. Bloomberg to very seriously consider running for president as an independent" if the current candidates are not able to take a bipartisan approach to the nation's problems.

The Times said in private conversations Bloomberg has discussed his interest in running.

Boren, now president of the University of Oklahoma, and co-host Sam Nunn, a former senator from Georgia, said they want their meeting to have discussions on the serious challenges that cannot be met without a consensus government.