Mayor Bloomberg was invited to hobnob with President Bush and other dignitaries last night at a fancy White House party, but he chose to speak at a civic association meeting in the Bronx.

Although he passed on attending dinner at the White House honoring the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Mr. Bloomberg denied it was meant as a slight to Mr. Bush or the Republican Party.

Mr. Bloomberg said he had committed to the event in Throgs Neck and planned to take his girlfriend out for a birthday dinner afterward. He said with a smirk that the dinner with Diana Taylor “has to be a very high priority.”

“The truth of the matter is, I checked with my scheduler and, yes, the White House was nice enough to invite me, and I will say I’m very appreciative for that,” he said. “I did not grow up in a family where we either got invitations to the White House or even knew anybody that got invitations to the White House.”

The mayor’s decision to skip the White House event came after reports that he is considering a possible endorsement of Council Member Joseph Addabbo, a Democrat, who may challenge a Republican, Serphin Maltese, for his state Senate seat in Queens. Such an endorsement would be a direct attack on the Republican leader of the Senate, Joseph Bruno, who is fighting to hold onto the GOP majority.

When asked yesterday about a possible Addabbo endorsement, Mr. Bloomberg said he would back whoever is best for New York, another signal he is tiring of waiting for billions of dollars in funding for city schools tied up in Albany.

The mayor’s passing on the White House invite also comes shortly after Ms.Taylor was unexpectedly dropped from consideration to replace Donald Powell as head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Until last week, Ms. Taylor, New York State’s banking superintendent, was said to be the leading contender for the position. When her name was removed from consideration, some speculated the National Rifle Association foiled her chances in retaliation for Mr. Bloomberg’s aggressive stance on gun control. The NRA has denied it played a role, and some political observers said they doubt the lobby was involved.

The mayor called the event in Throgs Neck, hosted by the local homeowners’ association, a “great chance to interact with the community.”

“That’s my job, and it’s a job that doesn’t leave me a lot of time for social work – social occasions,” he said.

He denied he is distancing himself from the Republican Party, but reminded reporters of a public fight he had a few years ago the former House majority leader, Rep. Thomas DeLay, of Texas, about fund raising.

A political consultant, Norman Adler, said he was not surprised the mayor skipped the White House dinner. Mr. Adler also noted that the Throggs Neck section gave Mr. Bloomberg a “pretty damn good plurality” in the last election.

“Given the balance between going someplace where he’s done extremely well and someplace where he hasn’t done that well, he chose to go to the place were he did well,” he said.

Other political observers said Mr. Bloomberg, a billionaire, had nothing to gain in New York by being perceived as someone cozy with Mr. Bush. Governor Pataki, on the other hand, attended the White House event. He is mulling a run in the Republican presidential primary in 2008 and has more to gain politically.

A former Republican minority leader in the City Council, Thomas Ognibene, who challenged Mr. Bloomberg in the last election, reiterated yesterday that the mayor’s Republican affiliation is “only a designation of convenience.”

When asked about the mayor’s possible endorsement of Mr. Addabbo, the chairman of the State Republican Committee, Stephen Minarik, who endorsed Mr. Bloomberg in his re-election bid, called the mayor a “rare leader” but said he hoped “cooler heads would prevail.

“I will stand with Mike Bloomberg, but we do have to make sure we don’t mess around with the state Senate,” he told The New York Sun.