New Yorkers eager to hear Willie Colon’s latest single shouldn’t bother trying to find it on the radio. A call to Mayor Bloomberg’s Midtown campaign office will do the trick.

While callers to the offices of the Democratic mayoral candidates hear stark silence when they are put on hold, potential voters waiting to talk to someone at the Bloomberg campaign offices are treated to original lyrics set to a buoyant Latin beat composed by Mr. Colon, a local salsa legend.

The song starts with the mayor, in his clunky Spanish, declaring: “I’m Mike Bloomberg and my passion is New York.”

Then the rhythm picks up and Mr. Colon, one of the five co-chairmen of the Bloomberg re-election campaign, jumps into an upbeat, surprisingly catchy tune about his devotion to the Republican incumbent.

“Mike Bloomberg is a leader, not a politician,” he sings in Spanish. “We should unite behind Mike Bloomberg for mayor.”

Mr. Colon, who refers to the mayor with nicknames including “Bloomberito” (little Bloomberg), also sings: “I have been a Democrat for my whole life, and I am going to vote for Bloomberg.” He tells potential voters: “It’s still not too late to vote for Bloomberg.”

Mr. Colon was said to be touring and unavailable for comment yesterday.

Music isn’t new to politics. President Clinton’s campaign blared “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow” in 1992, for example, and Governor Pataki campaigned to “New York Groove” in 2002.

People who track the role of music in politics said songs generally evoke positive emotions and make people more receptive to campaign messages.

“It’s easier to connect with people because you can bring up all that imagery that is associated with music and the song that’s hard to bring up otherwise,” a professor of marketing at the Yale School of Management, Ravi Dhar, said.

Mr. Dhar said songs that aren’t well-known – or are completely original, in this case – can still have that impact if they have lively tunes that generate good moods and positive feelings, which voters subconsciously transfer to candidates. But marketing and politics authorities said Mr. Bloomberg’s personalized Spanish-language jingle is a new kind of beast for two reasons.

First, it was composed especially for Mr. Bloomberg as a gift from Mr. Colon, even though the billionaire mayor certainly could afford to buy it.

Second, it represents an attempt to reach out to a specific group of voters, Hispanics, who are the key voting bloc behind the mayor’s top Democratic rival, Fernando Ferrer. The song has that potential because it’s in Spanish, it was created by an icon in New York’s Spanish-speaking community, and Mr. Colon’s forbears are Puerto Rican, as are Mr. Ferrer’s.

“I think it’s clever. I haven’t heard of it ever being done before,” the CEO of Latin Force, a New York-based Hispanic market strategy consulting firm, said.

The consultant, David Perez, said that while a song alone wouldn’t win voters, music is a central feature of Latino cultures. “Music becomes a cultural touchstone,” he said. “It becomes a way to reach out and connect with an audience in a more intimate way and in a more culturally relevant manner.”

A marketing professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, Samuel Craig, said Mr. Bloomberg is trying to appeal to Hispanic voters with his song, in the same way Senator Kerry used Bruce Springsteen in 2004 in an attempt to appeal to young voters.

“Obviously, he’s courting the Hispanic vote,” Mr. Craig said of the mayor. “I think music can be very powerful and it can help form an emotional bond between the one individual and the one using the music.”

The song might be particularly powerful as “hold music,” he said, because waiting callers are captive audiences.

Trackers of Hispanic voting behavior acknowledge that the song is a clear attempt to reach out to Mr. Ferrer’s key constituents, but they expressed mixed feelings about its potential impact.

A professor of sociology at Hunter College, Juan Flores, called Mr. Colon a “really well-known musician” who “brings what would traditionally been thought of as a Democratic message into the Republican camp.”

Mr. Flores, who specializes in Puerto Rican and Latino studies, said that some voters, particularly new immigrants, might be swayed by the song, but that the song might also backfire.

“It’s seen by many Puerto Ricans, particularly progressive Puerto Ricans, as a betrayal,” he said of Mr. Colon’s support for Mr. Bloomberg. “It’s sort of buying into the big-money candidates, the shoo-in candidate.”

Still, Mr. Flores suggested that Mr. Ferrer should take a page from Mr. Bloomberg’s playbook and find a song of his own. “Ferrer needs a lot of help,” he said. “Who knows? Maybe he should get Eddie Palmieri.”

The president of the Hispanic Federation, Lillian Rodriguez-Lopez, expressed more skepticism. She said a poll released last week showed that Hispanic voters care about schools, education, the economy, and affordable housing.

“Whether or not you spoke in our language or played music that was in Spanish did not weigh into the decision,” she said. “The community is very focused on the issues.”