Michael Bloomberg, New York's mayor, has convinced the city council to let him run for a third term, despite term limits that should make him ineligible.
His campaign has been dogged by protesters calling on him to respect the legal term limits, but opinion polls still show Bloomberg, listed by Forbes Magazine as the eighth richest man in the US in 2008, comfortably ahead of his little-known rival.
Al Jazeera's Kristen Saloomey reports on the controversy.
