Senator Clinton appears to be moving closer to a presidential run, meeting yesterday with Governor-elect Spitzer at his Fifth Avenue apartment in the latest in a series of get-togethers she is having to line up support among top New York Democrats.

Although Mrs. Clinton has not formally registered a campaign committee, a page on the Federal Election Commission Web site lists her as a candidate for president in 2008, and it lists a single, $1,000 donation in July 2004 from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Union officials did not return calls last night. In addition, at least two unauthorized committees have been registered for Mrs. Clinton with the intent of urging her to run.

After months of coy responses to questions of a White House bid, the news marks Mrs. Clinton’s first stated footsteps into an already crowded group of Democratic contenders.

The conference with Mr. Spitzer came as Mayor Bloomberg is refusing to rule out a national bid of his own. “It’s like, ‘Read my lips, no new taxes’ — you can’t say that,” the mayor is quoted as saying in a lengthy New York magazine article coming out today.

The magazine reports on Mr. Bloomberg’s meeting earlier this year with the head of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, Al From, and it quotes the mayor questioning the record of Senator McCain, a leading contender for the Republican nomination. “McCain, is he a viable candidate?” Mr. Bloomberg asks, according to the article. “Is it McCain from the ‘Straight Talk Express’ or the guy that went to Liberty University?” He adds: “He is a very nice guy … but I also think he is very conservative.”

For a mayor who has been at the center of presidential speculation for months, the comments provide further confirmation that despite Mr. Bloomberg’s near-daily denials, he has given considerable thought to a White House bid.

The 2008 field appears to be growing by the week. As Senator Bayh of Indiana yesterday announced his intention to form an exploratory committee, Mrs. Clinton began publicly contemplating her own likely run.

Her meeting with Mr. Spitzer followed conversations last week with other prominent Empire State Democrats, including the dean of New York’s congressional delegation, Rep. Charles Rangel, and the chairman of the state party, Assemblyman Herman “Denny” Farrell Jr. The Democrats did not say whether Mrs. Clinton told them that she was definitely going to run, but Mr. Farrell, who supports a Clinton candidacy, told the New York Times that he was pleased by what she said.

Throughout her successful Senate reelection campaign this fall, Mrs. Clinton deflected questions about 2008, saying she would seriously think about a presidential bid only after the November vote. “She’s following through on the process that she set forth,” one of her top political aides, Howard Wolfson, told The New York Sun yesterday.

Mrs. Clinton has not spoken with Senator Schumer, who is now the No. 3 Democrat in the Senate, but he said yesterday that she called him to arrange a meeting. “She wants to sit down and talk next week, which we’re going to do,” Mr. Schumer told reporters yesterday, without disclosing the purpose of the discussion, according to the Associated Press. “It could be about legislation. I have no idea what it’s about, and until we sit down and talk that’s all I’m going to say about it.” He added, “I think she’d make a very good president but let’s wait and see. Everyone’s sort of jumping the gun.”

Mr. Wolfson said Mrs. Clinton had not spoken with party leaders on the national level, and he would not give a timetable for a final decision. The senator’s aides have previously indicated that she could form an exploratory committee in December or January.

The former first lady has been laying low in the weeks since her reelection, and she will return to Washington this week for a lame-duck session of Congress.

A potential rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Obama of Illinois, will be in New York City today to give a keynote address at a benefit for a children’s charity, K.I.D.S. In a speech at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Mr. Obama will discuss what he calls the “empathy deficit” and will offer policy proposals to help alleviate poverty, a spokesman, Tommy Vietor, said.

Mr. Obama has said he is considering a presidential run. He will make that decision independently of what Mrs. Clinton or other potential contenders choose to do, Mr. Vietor said. “Senator Obama is going to make a decision based on how he feels he can be most useful to the country,” he said.

As they ponder their future, Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton, and others may have to keep an eye on City Hall. In the New York magazine article, Mr. Bloomberg gives no indication that he will order a halt to the presidential speculation, which he says is “probably helpful” to the city, since it could give him more clout in Albany and Washington.

While he ruminates on his chances for the White House, the mayor also gives a boost to a potential successor, the Time Warner chief executive Richard Parsons. He told New York magazine that Mr. Parsons would be a “great mayor” and that he would be “hard-pressed not to support him” in 2009.