If he wants to have a chance of unseating the popular incumbent in November, the presumed Democratic mayoral nominee, Fernando Ferrer, will have to paint Mayor Bloomberg as a billionaire who does not know what it’s like to worry about making the rent and who has strong ties to the Republican Party, political analysts said yesterday.

While the former Bronx president cleared a significant hurdle this week when the second-leading vote-getter in the Democratic primary, Rep. Anthony Weiner, conceded the race even though Mr. Ferrer missed the 40% vote total needed to avoid a runoff, analysts said devising a strategy to compete against Mr. Bloomberg is a more daunting challenge.

Mr. Bloomberg already has a number of Democrats supporting him and a laundry list of statistical improvements to cite from the past four years, ranging from increased school test scores to decreased crime. The mayor also has the power of office, allowing him to cut deals with additional potential backers, and a bottomless personal bank account, so he’ll have no problem paying for commercials, slick campaign literature, and whatever else he pleases.

But political consultants, including some who are commiserating about the tough task of winning City Hall from the Republicans who have occupied it for more than a decade, are falling back on two consoling facts: that the three Democrats who ran against Mr. Ferrer are now behind him, and that Democrats outnumber Republicans in the city by five to one.

“To suggest that it’s a done deal is silly,” a political consultant, Scott Levenson, said. “Anyone who is a student of 2001 … can’t be so arrogant to believe that they know for sure what’s going to happen in November.”

In 2001, Mr. Ferrer lost a bitter runoff to the public advocate, Mark Green. Animosity toward Mr. Green sent many Ferrer supporters into Bloomberg’s column in the general election.

By contrast, the three Democrats who were competing against Mr. Ferrer before Tuesday’s primary – Mr. Weiner, the speaker of the City Council, Gifford Miller, and the president of Manhattan, C. Virginia Fields – endorsed him yesterday at City Hall and even donned his blue-and-white campaign stickers and participated in “Freddy!” chants.

“When we unite, we win!” Ms. Fields shouted as a crowd of Ferrer supporters waved his campaign signs behind her.

“There were those who thought throughout this Democratic primary that we would destroy each other and reach this day not able to look at each other in the face because we would have torn each other apart,” Ms. Fields said, before the crowd started chanting “Unidad!”

With the primary candidates backing him and seemingly prepared to campaign for him, Mr. Ferrer can now fully focus on the general election and on battling Mr. Bloomberg in swing districts and for influential endorsements.

The Working Families Party, for example, is still in play. According to a source who asked not to be named, the WFP’s coordinating council is meeting Saturday to discuss the mayoral race and could make an endorsement as early as Sunday. The party’s backing would be a boon to Mr. Ferrer, but it is not guaranteed, partly because some unions affiliated with the party are backing the mayor.

The Bloomberg campaign has reportedly polled a sampling of WFP members. A spokesman for the campaign, Stuart Loeser, declined to comment on whether the poll was conducted. While the endorsement is unlikely to go to the mayor, Mr. Bloomberg has unusually strong union backing for a Republican.

The political director of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500, Anthony Speelman, said his membership, which endorsed Mr. Miller in the primary, seemed divided.

“This is a case where not everyone is united behind one candidate,” Mr. Speelman said. “Quite frankly, that’s what I’m wrestling with. We have many members saying go for the mayor and we have members saying Freddy is the right guy.”

The mayor’s high approval ratings make him the clear favorite, but if Mr. Ferrer can successfully speak to so-called Giuliani Democrats in the outer boroughs on middle-income, meat-and-potatoes issues, he can’t be counted out, analysts said. He’ll also have the challenging task of convincing voters that things are not as peachy as the mayor claims. He’s already invoked poverty figures and school dropout rates to make that case.

Yesterday, the chairman of the state Democratic Committee, Herman “Denny” Farrell Jr., said Mr. Ferrer would probably talk about the property tax increase on Staten Island, where he said residents got “whacked,” and discuss his views on improving education and city security. “Freddy is going to go up and down throughout this city,” he said.

A political science professor at Columbia University, Steven Cohen, pointed out earlier this week that Mr. Bloomberg, who transcended his middle-class upbringing to become a multibillionaire, is the “embodiment of a self-made man.”

“This is a city built by people who work very hard. They want to see hard work rewarded,” he said.

Loyal Ferrer backers dispute the notion that Mr. Bloomberg will simply be crowned the winner in November’s general election.

“Every poll I’ve seen says there’s a fairly significant gap between Bloomberg’s approval rating, which is in the low- to mid-60s and his vote share,” a spokesman for the New York State Democratic Committee, Howard Wolfson, said. “Freddy Ferrer starts this race with Bloomberg getting 50% of the vote. That is not an overwhelming number to overcome.”

Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign team has been aggressive with retaliatory attacks when the mayor is criticized and is clearly not taking his re-election for granted.

Yesterday, Senator Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, and Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, emailed letters asking Democrats to support Mr. Ferrer. Senator Clinton is also expected to endorse Mr. Ferrer, but it is unclear how much active help he is going to get from national Democrats.