Last fall, during a Purim celebration at the Brookdale Senior Center, Council Member Kendall Stewart, a Democrat of Brooklyn, threw an arm over Mayor Bloomberg’s shoulders and declared, “This guy deserves four more years.”

Council Member Simcha Felder, a Democrat who represents Boro Park and Bensonhurst, went to the microphones. “I want to thank Kendall to be the first council member to endorse the mayor,” he said, laughing.

While it is unclear whether Mr. Stewart meant to give Mr. Bloomberg a formal endorsement nearly two years before the election, his support could be seen as the first in a long, slow rollout of conservative Democrats who will step up and support the mayor’s reelection before the bruising primary season even begins.

“They haven’t asked me to make a formal endorsement yet, but when they do, I’ll be there,” Council Member Madeline Provenzano, a Democrat of the Bronx, told The New York Sun. “I supported Mayor Bloomberg the first time because I didn’t think he’d be beholden to anyone. Now I am supporting him because he’s shown he has the right stuff. He needs another term to finish what he has started.”

Ms. Provenzano’s district, which includes Pelham Parkway and Morris Park, has a substantial number of Republicans and conservative Democrats who supported Mr. Bloomberg in 2001 and are likely to do so next year, she said.

On Sunday, a former Democratic congressman of Queens, the Reverend Floyd Flake, is holding a press conference with Mr. Bloomberg. Mr. Flake, senior pastor of the 15,000-member Allen A.M.E. Church in Jamaica, is expected to throw his weight behind the mayor. Mr. Flake declined to discuss Sunday’s announcement on the record, though he did say Mr. Bloomberg is expected to join him at a senior center four blocks from the church.

An endorsement from Mr. Flake wouldn’t come as a complete surprise: In the past he has backed not only Mayors Koch and Dinkins but also Mayor Giuliani. Still, should he formally endorse the mayor on Sunday, it could help Mr. Bloomberg court the city’s black voters who, to now, have offered him only lukewarm support.

“It’s like chicken soup for a cold,” a political consultant, Evan Stavisky, said.

“My grandmother said it was good for me and the soup certainly doesn’t hurt – but whether it will actually help is a subject reasonable people can disagree on,” Mr. Stavisky, who counts mayoral hopefuls Gifford Miller and Fernando Ferrer among his past clients, said. “The former congressman is certainly influential in southeast Queens, but anyone who thinks they can predict 11 months before an election how things will shake out based on endorsements has had a little too much Christmas cheer.”

Howard Wolfson, who was a key strategist in Senator Clinton’s successful run for office four years ago,said the Bloomberg campaign is likely to schedule appearances soon with the halfdozen to a dozen Democrats who have a history of endorsing Republican candidates. “That’s the first group he’ll go after,” Mr. Wolfson said.

A political scientist at Baruch College, Douglas Muzzio, agreed. “Bloomberg can’t afford to run as a Republican in New York,” he said. “If Flake supports him, that is a big deal. He is not only a high-profile Democrat, he is a black, highly influential religious leader. These endorsements are clearly part of a strategy. The question now is who is the next one?”

At best, Mr. Bloomberg has always been a bit of an arm’s-length Republican. He changed his party affiliation so he wouldn’t have to suffer the slings and arrows of a Democratic primary in 2001, and he was careful to present himself as an attentive host rather than an ardent Bush supporter during the Republican National Convention in August. To have done otherwise would have been political suicide, analysts said. The city’s 562,000 enrolled Republican voters are outnumbered more than 5-to-1 by the Democrats.

“New York is the bluest of the blue states and New York City is the bluest part of a blue state, so it makes perfect sense for any Republican to broaden their base and appeal to Democrats,” Mr. Wolfson said. “Giuliani did that in ’93 and ’97. Pataki and the Senate ma jority leader did this, too. Whether it will work for Bloomberg, it is just too early to tell.”

Mr. Bloomberg’s election chances are better now than they were in 2001 because he has a record to run on.The New York economy has improved, crime is down, and the mayor has vowed to fix the city’s broken public-school system and has taken steps to do just that. His approval rating is still below 50%,which is worrisome as he goes into re-election mode,but it is a far cry from the 32% approval numbers he had two years ago.

The biggest obstacle to Mr. Bloomberg’s chances for another four years has been his inability to disabuse New Yorkers of the notion that he is a billionaire who doesn’t understand their problems. He remains at odds with three of the city’s largest unions – police, firefighters, and teachers – and he has spent a good deal of his political capital pushing a Jets stadium project on the West Side of Manhattan that would be financed in part with hundreds of millions of dollars of public money.The West Side plan has become a battle of the titans, pitting the mayor against the owners of Madison Square Garden, who have taken to the airwaves to oppose the stadium. That bruising fight, however, has not diminished the impression of many New Yorkers that Mr. Bloomberg has done well.

“I think he has done an extraordinary job on things like education,” Mr. Felder said, though the council member from Brooklyn was careful not to allow his praise to be construed as an early endorsement of Mr.Bloomberg.”And 311,I think,is unbelievable.It’s not perfect but it is a wonderful system that links New Yorkers to the government.

“People see Bloomberg as an honest businessman who does what he says he’ll do,” Mr. Felder said. “Our community here, especially Bensonhurst and Boro Park, we have a track record of voting for people who will be best for the job. It doesn’t matter if they are Republican or Democrat. I think people on the street believe he has done a good job. But then we aren’t even in the election year yet.”