New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Oct. 2 that he is pushing for changes that would allow him to seek a third term, saying he wants to handle unfinished city business, including the "unprecedented challenges" brought on by the financial meltdown.

Michael Bloomberg AP PHOTO

"The question for me has become much less about the theoretical and much more about the practical," the one-time proponent of term limits said at a City Hall news conference. "And so to put it in very practical terms, handling this financial crisis while strengthening the essential services, such as education and public safety, is a challenge I want to take on for the people of New York."

Bloomberg, confirming earlier reports about his plan, said he will ask the City Council to change New York's term limits law so he can run for another four years in office next year.

He said that if the council agrees, "I plan to ask New Yorkers to look at my record of independent leadership and then decide if I've earned another term. As always, it will be up to the people to decide, not me."

The current law limits the mayor to two terms. Council Speaker Christine Quinn said a bill to alter the term limits law for city officeholders would be introduced Oct. 7. The measure would change the limit from two consecutive terms, or eight years, to a maximum of three terms, or 12 years.

The billionaire founder of financial information company Bloomberg LP was elected two months after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and then cruised to a landslide in 2005 after spending tens of millions of his own fortune.