The New York Times is reporting that Mayor Bloomberg will announce tomorrow that he will seek a third term.

The timing suggests that Bloomberg made up his mind after hearing supportive words from a tiny circle of city powerbrokers and wealthy businessmen. The move comes on the same day that Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post has an editorial headlined “Run, Mike, Run.” And it comes ten days after the New York Daily News ran its own editorial, which was also headlined, “Run, Mike, Run.”

So much for the great tabloid wars.

Bloomy’s move also comes after he got a nod from another important source, fellow billionaire and cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder. In a Post “exclusive” Lauder said he was convinced by the looming financial crisis that he should back a “one-time” extension to the term limits law.

Lauder’s support is considered key since he waged a successful one-man battle back in 1993 to win the law limiting elected city officials to two terms. Lauder also helped beat back a 1996 referendum push that would have added one more term to the two-term limit. He had earlier vowed to fight any new effort to change the laws.

Our favorite vote of confidence for a third Bloomberg term comes from another billionaire, developer Steve Ross, owner of Related Companies, which has won a steady series of lucrative development approvals under Bloomberg’s regime, including the old Bronx Terminal market.

“This is a good time for him to do this,” Ross tells the Times. “People are scared.”