There have been reports of very long lines at the polls this morning. More than 400 people were already assembled outside P.S. 9 in Prospect Heights when the polls opened at 6 a.m. Confusion reigned outside the Hell's Kitchen polling station at 520 West 45th Street, where lines reportedly snaked around the block. Elected officials have had to patiently wait their turns. Chuck Schumer passed the time on a Brooklyn sidewalk chatting on his cell phone. Michael Bloomberg was No. 270 in line when he turned up on the Upper East Side this morning and he spent 45 minutes chatting with reporters and aides before getting a chance to make his pick. One person ahead of him? Eliot Spitzer. [NYT, WNBC, NYP, NYO]

Michael Bloomberg will sign his controversial bill extending term limits later today. In the meantime, the public is getting one last chance to sound off on the subject at City Hall. NY1 has live coverage of the public bitchfest. [NY1]

Alberto Rottura is the man who cuts Michael Bloomberg's hair. (His cuts cost $35.) He's also the man who tends to the locks of Betsy Gotbaum and Tom Wolfe. One person who used to be a client but no longer shows his face around Rottura's salon any longer? Eliot Spitzer. "Then he got entangled in an escort scandal, resigned and never came back, Mr. Rottura said." [NYT]

♦ Madonna and Alex Rodriguez were able to fly out to the Hamptons for a "quick and cozy rendezvous" without anyone knowing, but only because Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld picked the couple up (separately) from the East Hampton airport and let them hang out for several hours at their waterfront manse. [P6, The Sun]
♦ With her husband Rossano Rubicondi filming a reality show in Italy, Ivana Trump has been hanging out with a 23-year-old Belgian model named Marius Rusovici. [P6]
♦ Tina Brown and Cathie Black are enemies, apparently, since they "disagreed on just about everything" and "wouldn't even look at each other," at a conference this week. [R&M]
♦ Is John McCain making an Saturday Night Live appearance this weekend? Does anyone care? [MSNBC]

What are the chances the big, fat Wall Steet bonus will go the way of the three-martini lunches (or mortgage-backed securities)? "Slim to none,'' says John Gutfreund, the former CEO of Salomon Brothers and the man responsible for ending Michael Bloomberg's career in investment banking in the early '80s. "They [bankers] are going to have to be a little bit sensitive because politicians, whether they like it or not, are part of their lives now." We'll go ahead and assume this will come as very welcome news to real estate brokers struggling to find buyers for $60 million apartments. [Bloomberg]

New York City's gun "buyback program" is going great, you'll be happy to hear. According to Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, 744 firearms were collected last weekend. One "entrepreneur" (Morgie's words, not ours) was even clever enough to collect nine guns from his friends, so he could turn them in and collect $200 a piece! Just a friendly reminder in case you've been keeping an AK-47 in the back of your closet and you're looking to make a little extra cash in advance of the holidays. [Newsday, NYP]

Goddammit. Mike Bloomberg is going to be mayor again, forever. He will pay lip service to the poor and raise the cigarette tax to $400 dollars and ban watching too much tv and give the entire Bronx to some developers and the NYPD will continue to shoot black people, tase crazies, and arrest hippies. But we need him, now, because he is a Serious Nonpartisan Grownup Expert Business Manager, and the City is in a Crisis. [NYT]

Michael Bloomberg has prevailed in his quest to run for the third term. By a vote of 29 to 22, the New York City Council voted to extend term limits a little while ago, overturning two voter referendums that had imposed a limit of two four-year terms. The vote wasn't without some excitement: After Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum announced the tally at 4:35 p.m., the balcony "erupted in shouts of 'The city's for sale!' and 'Shame on you!'" [NYT, NYDN, NYP]

A couple of weeks ago, Michael Bloomberg's bid to change term limit laws was going rather smoothy. He'd managed to sweet talk Ronald Lauder into not opposing the measure, members of the City Council appeared to be on board with the plan, and New Yorkers were generally supportive. Now? Not so much. Not only did he spark a scandal over his charity donations and is now facing off against another billionaire with an agenda, public opinion has officially turned against him, too: A poll by Quinnipiac University found that 51 percent of New Yorkers are now opposed to his bid to extend term limits, up from 42% two weeks ago. Bloomberg isn't expected to abandon his bid to remain in City Hall for another four years. But it also isn't too late to endorse Obama, campaign like hell for him over the course of the next two weeks, and pray that a cabinet position will become available when Obama takes office in January!

There's a big dinner in New York tomorrow in honor of Al Smith, the first Catholic presidential candidate. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, CBS News' Katie Couric and various other smug media elitists will be there, along with Sen. Hillary Clinton. The Democratic and Republican presidential nominees have been asked to give 15-minute speeches, but only one has requested an a teleprompter to keep him from just repeating "Who is the REAL Barack Obama, my friends" over and over for the entire speech. Organizers are confused, the Post reports, because they've never met a politician who couldn't give a 15-minute address without elaborate technological aids, and in fact no one has asked for a teleprompter for this event, ever, but really McCain just knows he'll be tired out from personally insulting and snubbing Barack Obama in a variety of innovative new ways at tonight's debate.

Michael Bloomberg may spend as much as $100 million to run for mayor for a third time next year, which would be $16 million more than he spent in 2005. (Think how embarrassing it would be to actually change the city's term limit laws and then lose!) So where will the money go? A Bloomberg administration official says an estimated $20 million of it will be used to "pound away" at the mayor's likely competition, Anthony Weiner, who "Mr. Bloomberg is said to dislike." [NYT]

Ron Lauder now says he'll "reluctantly" support Mayor Bloomberg's efforts to extend term limits so that he can take up a third term in 2009. Why? Because "we are in the midst of a financial emergency," of course! But Lauder says he only consented to the deal with the agreement that the city will put the matter before voters (again!) in 2010, at which point he'll go (back!) to supporting a two-term limit. Complicated! But at least now Lauder can return to his regularly scheduled nap. [NYT]

"Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of The New York Times, had two breakfasts with the mayor, and although no specific commitments were made [about endorsing Bloomberg's third term], an understanding was reached." [Times]

♦ Yesterday evening the New York Women's Foundation Fall Gala took place at Gotham Hall: Michael Bloomberg and Diana Taylor, Iman, Joel Klein and Nicole Seligman, Robert De Niro and Grace Hightower, Felicia Taylor, Jamie Niven, Herbert Wachtell, and Jonathan Farkas ate, drank, and watched a performance from the American Ballroom Theater Youth Dance Company. [Wireimage, PMc]

These three women were all once married to prominent local politicians. Know who they are? Answers after the jump.

Four More Years! [NY1]
It's Official! [NYDN]
Encore! [NYP]
Bloomberg Says He Wants a Third Term as Mayor [NYT]
Bloomberg Says He Will Seek Third Term as New York Mayor [WSJ]

Michael Bloomberg will hold a press conference at noon in which he's expected to formally announce his plans to seek a third term as mayor. [City Room]

Big real estate is loving the idea of a third term for Michael Bloomberg. "I think he's the greatest mayor we've ever had," says mega-developer Doug Durst. "Let's keep him forever," says Alex Sapir, the son of billionaire real estate tycoon Tamir Sapir. "He's the best mayor New York has had—certainly in my lifetime," offered up Jed Walentas, the son of Brooklyn landowner David Walentas. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Bloomberg has been especially generous with the real estate industry during his term, and the thought of some career politician coming in and mucking things up makes them shudder. But steel yourself for what's going to come in 2013. Donald Trump is already thinking ahead: "Fourth term? Absolutely! I think it would be great." [NYO]

It's funny how convenient a giant crisis can be when you want to cling to elected office! Back in 2001, Rudy Giuliani argued that the events of September 11th necessitated bending term limits so he could remain in office an additional three months. It didn't happen, of course. (And now Rudy claims he really didn't want to stay in office, it was the public who pushed him to pursue the plan. Ha.) Now Michael Bloomberg is expected to announce shortly that he's going to push City Council legislation to change term limit laws so he can seek a third term. Mike's new rationale for staying put? According to his advisers, he "will argue that the worldwide financial crisis—with its potentially severe impact on New York City—demands his steady hand and business experience." We're not sure he really needs an excuse, though. (Just mentioning the names of some of his possible replacements seems like sufficient evidence.) But it also isn't clear how having Bloomberg remain in office will do much to help the economy.