With both the Republican and Democratic national committees threatening to discipline their state party affiliates in Florida for presuming to decide on their own when to hold the primaries in which the state’s voters will choose among the presidential nominees, an opportunity is opening up for Mayor Bloomberg.

The national Democrats are upset that Florida Democrats want to have their primary January 29 — too early, according to the national Democrats — and are threatening to disenfranchise Floridians entirely. The Republicans are being only slightly more lenient, docking Florida Republicans with a penalty of 50% of the delegates whose votes would otherwise represent the state at the national convention.

For the national Republicans, a January 29 Florida primary is also dangerously early. The party can set any rule it wants, but setting Florida Republican voters to count for only one half of what other Republican votes are worth seems like quite an insult.

In any event, it all opens up quite an opportunity for Mr. Bloomberg, whose independent presidential run could get off to a strong start if it sets up a nomination process that treats all Americans equally, including those from the Sunshine State. Mr. Bloomberg is well positioned for Florida already. He owns a house in Wellington at which his daughter reportedly rides horses during the winter.

A campaign swing by Mr. Bloomberg’s mother would electrify audiences at the retirement communities of Broward, Dade, and Palm Beach Counties. Florida is home to one of the nation’s largest Jewish communities and to a large population of transplants from New York City, two sources of voters that would likely have an affinity for Mr. Bloomberg.

Mr. Bloomberg has done so many joint appearances on education with the governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, that the two sometimes seem joined at the hip. And Mr. Bloomberg’s support for immigration is likely to be popular in Florida, a state, like New York, whose vitality stems from its willingness to welcome newcomers.

Some of those advantages apply also to another New York City mayor running for president, Rudolph Giuliani, but not all of them. Mr. Giuliani reportedly owns a two-bedroom condominium in Palm Beach, and he, too, can appeal to New York transplants and to Jewish voters. But many of those Jewish voters and New York transplants are not registered Republicans, and Florida is a closed primary state, meaning Democrats and independents can’t cross over to vote for Mr. Giuliani in the Republican primary. Mr. Giuliani’s recent anti-immigration jag will hurt him with Florida’s voters, many of whom are immigrants or children of immigrants.

The question Mr. Bloomberg can ask is, what do the national Democrats and Republicans have against Florida? Are there too many Hispanics? Too many Jews? Too many high-income voters? Why should Florida, a state with a dynamic and growing economy based on international trade with Latin America, spectacular shopping from Worth Avenue in Palm Beach to the Sawgrass Mills factory outlets in Plantation, and tourist attractions from South Beach to the Breakers to Disney World, have to take a back seat to early-voting backwaters such as Iowa and New Hampshire?

The opening is for Mr. Bloomberg to break with the tradition of kowtowing to Iowa and New Hampshire and design a nominating process for 21st century America. It’d be a process that doesn’t favor predominantly white rural states to the disadvantage of more racially diverse states and urban and suburban Americans. It’d be a process in which national politicians strive to empower Florida voters rather than to disenfranchise them. It’s a perfect opportunity for Mr. Bloomberg to seize and get his presidential campaign off to the right start on both the process and the substance.