RUN TOM RUN—LATER: A grass-roots campaign to draft Supervisor Tom Ammiano for mayor apparently has not persuaded the board president to take on nemesis Willie Brown—at least not this year.

Though he unapologetically leans left, his leanings away from Brown were enough to get about a dozen members of the moderate- conservative Chinese American Democratic Club to pin on “Run Tom Run” buttons and to sign a petition urging him “to take up the challenge of becoming the People’s Mayor of San Francisco” and to take on the “Willie Brown machine.”

Still, “the answer is ‘no’. I’m not running,” said Ammiano, speaking before the group April 15.

Asked about the exchange later, Ammiano unambiguously reiterated that he would not enter this year’s race. Still, “I know that the mayor thinks I’m running,” he teased as he talked about issues such as public transit, district elections, ATM fees and conflicts between construction trade unions and minority contractors.

What would be a heated fight comes too quickly after Ammiano’s hard-won battle for board president, in which he and Supervisors Mabel Teng and Gavin Newsom vied for the top number of votes. Ammiano, who campaigned on being an “independent” supervisor, left Brown’s favorite, Teng, in third place and Brown appointee Newsom in second.

“I just got elected president … I want to give that a chance,” Ammiano said. “I just got off the campaign trail. And truthfully, the idea of running again in terms of this year is not very appetizing.”

His strong showing, including in moderate and conservative pre-cincts, encouraged talk of a potential Brown challenge, especially given that Supervisor Amos Brown came close to losing his seat to Rose Tsai, who promised voters that she’d “stand up to Willie Brown.”

Yet Brown since the election has moved fast to insulate himself from his detractors, including widening his Asian American popularity ratings outside the “gatekeepers” who have long been perceived to run City Hall. He installed more than a half-dozen Asian American commissioners, including Tsai’s colleague, Julie Lee, who got a former insider’s spot on the Housing Commission, and former Judge Harry Low, who he named as president of the Human Rights Commission.

MAYBE IN FOUR YEARS... Ammiano says he believes more candidates would be healthy in the looming mayoral race, even if he’s not among them.

“There has been no opposition. This is kind of a creepy thing,” he said of the limited field of potential challengers, of whom only one—political consultant Clint Reilly - has officially declared a bid. “Not to have opposition doesn’t feel balanced.”

Ammiano acknowledged that “there is a lot of feeling out there … anybody but Willie. It’s real.” And if that’s the case some years down the road, he said, he might feel differently. “If and when Willie Brown gets re-elected ... looking at the years after that could be viable if everything stays the same.”

Yet the board president continued: “I want to be wise about it. I think there are cases in San Francisco history-no names mentioned-where a good poll or a nice response made people think, ‘Well, I could do it.’ Maybe they jumped in too prematurely or maybe they didn’t weigh everything,” Ammiano said. “It just can’t be a popularity contest.”

Yet the historical odds are not good for a board president and a supervisor becoming mayor. Dianne Feinstein was the last board president and supervisor to become mayor in1978, soon after being appointed board president in the wake of Mayor George Moscone’s assassination.

FILIAL POLITICAL PIETY: Ammiano’s key ally, Supervisor Leland Yee, had still not ruled out a mayoral bid as of last week. Yet when asked about it, Ammiano replied, “Leland Yee? He keeps telling me he’s not going to run.”

Meanwhile, Yee says he has to talk with his mother before evaluating his next move—from the four-unit building he shares with other family members on Dolores Street in Noe Valley.

Though Yee earned 34 percent of the vote in 1996, easily gaining one of the six open seats, he placed seventh in District 8, which has plenty of gay and lesbian voters but relatively few Asian Americans. Less than 4 percent are of Chinese descent, according to a Solem and Associates study. Overall, more than 16 percent of citywide voters are Asian American, mostly Chinese American.

CLINT OR CLINTON: Speaking of mayoral contender Clint Reilly, he has of late been referring to himself as “Clinton” rather than the more informal moniker under Clint. Is there a subtle message in tying himself linguistically closer to President Bill Clinton than former Carmel Mayor and movie icon Clint Eastwood?

SMILE, ALEX: Five months after becoming the only Asian American incumbent to retain his seat on the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, the cherubic Alex Wong continues to rack up titles. He will probably end up being president of Richmond District Democratic Club (where someone once gave him the nickname “dimples”) in addition to co-chairing the comatose Asian Pacific Democratic Club (the group hasn’t met since December). He is chairing the political action committee of the Sunset District Democratic Club.

GORED BY THE GYOZA?: E-mail me at samson@sfindependent.com.