The Village Independent Democrats, the Manhattan political club best known for taking down the last Tammany Hall boss, plans to endorse one of the mayoral candidates after a forum tonight.

Though club members insisted that no candidate had locked up the endorsement and that anything could happen, several outside sources told The New York Sun yesterday that they expected a former borough president of the Bronx, Fernando Ferrer, to win the club’s backing.

The Greenwich Village club was where Mayor Koch made his name when he unseated the longtime political boss Carmine DeSapio in the 1960s. During tonight’s candidates forum, each of the candidates will be given five minutes to make opening remarks and then five minutes to respond to questions from the audience. After the forum, members will cast votes for one of the candidates looking to replace Mayor Bloomberg in November’s election.

In addition to Mr. Ferrer, the candidates are: the speaker of the City Council, Gifford Miller; a member of Congress from a Brooklyn-Queens district, Anthony Weiner, and the borough president of Manhattan, C. Virginia Fields. It was unclear yesterday whether Council Member Charles Barron, who announced this week that he would probably drop out of the mayoral race, would attend.

The past president of the club, Chad Marlow, said that he expected about half of the 250 members to attend and that the winning candidate would need 50% of the votes plus one. The Village club, one of dozens of Democratic organizations in the city, could also decide to hold off on endorsing anyone until later in the political season.

Mr. Marlow said that he would personally vote for Mr. Ferrer, but that it would be “nearly impossible” to predict what the club would do.

Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, who announced her endorsement of Mr. Ferrer yesterday, said she was “guardedly optimistic” that her candidate would get the backing of the club, to which she is closely connected.

“I’m sure that we’ll have an endorsement for Freddy at some point. I’d just like it to be early,” Ms. Glick said. “I think Freddy is the odds-on favorite.”

Mr. Koch, who broke with the club in 1982 when it endorsed Mario Cuomo in his successful run for governor, said yesterday the backing of any political group was important because members usually help collect petition signatures.

The former mayor said, however, that he doubted that the group’s stamp of approval would carry any serious weight.

“An endorsement of any club, whether it’s the VID or any other club, is important,” he said during a brief phone interview. “It brings you workers.” But he added: “I don’t think they have much influence anymore. They certainly don’t have any with me.”

Indeed, Mr. Koch has changed his political tune in recent years. He backed President Bush in last year’s presidential election.

Though the Village Independent Democrats are not nearly as powerful or influential as the larger county organizations or the unions, all the candidates are looking for momentum, and any endorsement sends an early signal.

Last week, Mr. Miller won endorsements from more than a dozen Brooklyn elected officials. And tonight, in a blow to Mr. Bloomberg, Queens County Republicans are expected to endorse a former minority leader of the City Council, Thomas Ognibene, who is planning to challenge the mayor in a GOP primary.