All last week San Francisco’s politicians scuttled back and forth with their decision for a possible mayorship. After months of toying with the idea, Supervisor Leland Yee, one of the much-discussed mayoral aspirants announced last week he won’t run for mayor. On the same day, Supervisor Tom Ammiano as another one of Mayor Willie Brown’s top challengers, declared that he too was stepping out of the race. Former mayor Frank Jordan, on the other hand, decided to butt-heads again with Brown, to whom he lost his mayoral seat in 1995.

With Yee, a viable challenger for the Chinese American votes, out of the picture, the mayoral race is now left to Brown, Reilly and Jordan to vie for one of the city’s most crucial voting bloc.

“This is a vote that has gone from 11 percent of registered voters in 1991 to almost18 percent.” said David Lee, executive director of the nonprofit Chinese American Voters Education Committee (CAVEC).

He added: “The Chinese are likely to be the swing vote in this election.”

YEE DECLINES
Supervisor Leland Yee, who announced his anticipated decision just one day before the August 6 deadline to declare candidacy, cited money as the focal reason for this decision not to run.

To be competitive, Yee calculated he would have to spend $2-4 million dollars, or anywhere between $22,000 a day to $44,000. Raising that kind of money, he said, would be an “extremely daunting task.

“That is not the type of campaign that I would have ever wanted to be involved with,” he said, adding, “I will not be forced into that kind of lobbying effort -- basically going to my supporters and asking them for money to the exclusion of going out to the neighborhood and talking about the issues.”

If he were to run, he said, he’d be forced to spend most of his time campaigning for money, as opposed to going out to the neighborhoods. Yee emphasized he’d rather concentrate on maintaining a dialog with his constituents and working to address their needs. “I have always tried to be a people’s individual,” he said. “I have always tried to be a people’s elected official.”

Yee, a vocal critic of the mayor, said the only reason he contemplated the mayorship was to work to improve the quality of life in the city, which he says has deteriorated.

“Part of my even considering has to do with what I believe to be a failure in the current administration,” Yee said. “This city has now parlayed development at the expense of our neighborhoods. Our neighborhood is being ravished by live-work developments, by chained doors and congestion, and there is absolutely a lack of leadership in City Hall now from the Mayor of this city to address those particular issues.”

It was clear however that Brown’s supporters welcomed Yee’s decision.

P.J. Johnston, a spokesperson for the Brown campaign, said they were “encouraged by the fact that Supervisor Yee won’t be running against Mayor Brown, thereby making more difficult the relationship at City Hall.

“Yee and Brown often disagreed on issues, but had a fine working relationship since Yee was elected to the Board of Supervisors,” he added.

“I think he made a wise decision,” said Pius Lee, San Francisco Port Commissioner and co-chair of the Chinatown Economic Development Group.

“It’s not like running for supervisor,” said Lee, who ran for Board of Supervisors in 1980. “Running for mayor’s race, he needs enough time. If he wanted to run, he should have eight months ago. It’s too late for him to jump in now.”

Lee added: “All the community groups have committed to Brown now.”

THE OTHERS MAKE THEIR MOVE
“It was a very sad and hard decision to make but I think it was a right one for me,” said Ammiano, when he decided not to run.

“I do plan to take the lead on some ballot measures in November -- also to focus on district election so that we can go back to checks and balances between the Mayor’s office and the board.”

Ammiano has said that he’ll focus on ballot measures to stop banks from double-charging for ATM transactions, strengthen city’s Sunshine requirements, build affordable housing and push for the building of Octavia Boulevard as replacement to the Central Freeway.

Former supervisor Angela Alioto decided, while vacationing in Rome, that she wasn’t going to run.

Meanwhile, Jordan maintained that his last minute decision to run for mayor wasn’t because Ammiano and Yee opted out, saying he was “personally disappointed they didn’t run.”

More diverse mayoral candidates, who represent various sections of interest, would actually make the race more in tuned to the voter’s need, he said.

As many as 33 people have filed documents saying they intend to run but after the August 6 deadline; 14 candidates remain in the race, including one Asian American, Martin Eng, an Internet company founder. Yee, however, had the best shot at a runoff in December.

“Leland would’ve waged a formidable campaign,” said Tom Pier, campaign spokesperson for Clint Reilly. He would carry a lot of issues into the mayor’s race -- central freeway, neighborhood issues.”

Pier said Reilly is on the same side of those issues. But while money was an issue for Yee, it clearly isn’t for Reilly, who has independently loaned his campaign $902,000.

“It’s critical for any challenger to be able to compete financially and Clint will be able to do that,” Pier said.

But Pier asserted that the difference between Brown’s spending and that of Reilly’s is that Reilly “won’t be beholden to any special interest groups.”

VYING FOR THE VOTES
With Yee out, the importance of gaining Chinese votes is uncontested among political observers and the candidates themselves. Brown, Jordan and Reilly are very well aware that the Chinese voting bloc will have a major impact on the mayoral race.

They all say that they have a good track record with Asian American voters -- and are working fiercely to contend for the votes.

“We’re going to campaign very hard for Asian American votes,” said Pier, adding that “Clint has got an excellent history with the Asian American community.”

The Chinese political power has been likened to that of the political power of the gay community. “Harvey Milk used to say that his dream was that every politician, every contingency leader would be coming to the gay community for support because of its political might,” said David Lee.

“Chinese Americans are really on this threshold -- its a vote that cannot be ignored,” Lee said. “When you’re that big, everyone comes to you.”

Reilly, Brown’s strongest contender, knows he needs to gather a strong Asian American support base. A Clint Reilly mailer in Chinese and English has been circulated throughout the city; among Reilly’s prominent Asian American supporters: Roland Quan, past president of the San Francisco Chinese American Democratic Club, Rose Tsai, of the SF Neighbors Association and Henry Louie of the SF Democratic County Central Committee.

“Reilly has always targeted Chinese American voters -- his positions are very close to what Chinese Americans believe in, said Quan.

“His campaign overall address quality of life issues, which has always been important to Chinese Americans,” and the rest of the the city, he said.

Pier, likewise, pointed out: “[Reilly] has always supported rebuilding the Central Freeway... the quality of life issues in San Francisco affect the Asians like any other community... and the failure of the Mayor to adequately fix Muni has impacted the Asian community.”

Jordan, too, said he was confident that Asian American voters will support him, saying that in the Chinese and Asian American communities, he has a “known record of being fair, open, and balanced.

“It’s just a matter of opening up the channels of communication,” he added.

Brown, though, may stand the best chance of garnering the greatest number of Chinese votes, asserted David Lee, largely because of the Asian Americans appointments he’s made throughout his term. “He is obviously courting this vote,” said Lee.

Pius Lee, who echoes those sentiments said: “With Leland out of the race, the majority of Chinese will vote for Brown.”

“Brown supports the legalization of in-laws which is important to Sunset and Richmond,” he added.

In an interview last month with AsianWeek, Brown, who has long cultivated ties with members of the Asian American political elites, went over a list of his Asian American appointees, something he believes is the start of a more inclusive government.

Among his appointees: Fred Lau, police chief for the city; Ed Lee, purchasing agent; Doug Wong, who is in charge of the San Francisco Port; Harry Low, chair of the Human Rights Commission; Frank Chong of the Board of Education; and Supervisor Michael Yaki.

“On every board and commission practically, there is Asian representation,” Brown said. “And it’s across the board in terms of representation.”

Said Brown: “I’m very pleased that the goal of expanded opportunities [for Asian Americans] that I had in ’95 has been virtually achieved by ’99. The goal for 2000 and beyond literally must be one of improving upon what I’ve already done, number one. And number two, preparing for expand ing Asian political power in San Francisco.”

Expanding Asian representation, he said, will eventually put Asian Americans on the board to govern the city -- but only after his term -- the term he believes he will win.

“Four years from now when I’m no longer a candidate for mayor -- if we have done our politics correctly and if we’ve done our programs correctly, an Asian could easily be elected mayor of this city.

“My vision is to achieve that goal by one, getting myself elected by the right combination of people and supporters, which would then translate into assistance for an Asian candidate in the year 2003.”

OUR VOTES ARE NOT FOR SALE
But Yee remains cynical. He says that public display of support of candidates who claim to represent Asian Americans doesn’t necessarily translate to votes.

“Chinese people are extremely supportive of good candidates; they are extremely supportive of decent candidates,” he said. “They are not going to be deceived into voting for anybody and they are also rather gracious. They are accomodating. If you come to their house, they’re not going to turn you away.”

He said, however, “In the privacy of the ballot box, they’ll do what is the right thing, and so I would think that people would understand how the Chinese do in fact operate.”

“There are charlatans in our community,” he added.

To the candidates hoping to gain the Chinese vote, Yee had a stern warning: “Do not assume that some how coming to this community and being welcomed in our house so that you can take pictures so that you can have dinner with us -- that some how that means that the people will vote for you.

“It is by no mistake that this Mayor, Willie Brown is trying to court the vote of the Chinese community and the Asian community,” said Yee. “Chinese people -- we are a rather gracious individual but we are also very smart -- you will have individuals standing next to you but be very, very clear that that does not mean that you will have votes,” he declared.

“Votes have been hard to come by. Many have died for those votes. Our votes are not for sale,” Yee added.

However, Yee, sounding like the spokesperson for the San Francisco’s Chinese population, does not have a monopoly on Chinese voters, some say.

“Certainly there was the perception that [Yee] wasn’t ready to run, or ready for the job, or ready to put himself out there as a candidate, or all of the above -- its a tough thing to run for mayor,” said David Lee.

“What does this mean -- not a whole lot in terms of Chinese political participation,” said Lee.

Johnston, campaign spokesperson for Brown, agreed that Chinese votes are up for grabs but, “everyone’s votes are up for grabs.

“Supervisor Yee could not take for granted the Chinese votes and no other candidate could either,” he said.

Roland Quan contested the fact that Chinese Americans would have voted for Yee based on ethnicity alone. “Chinese voters are very diverse and very different, they will study the issues before they make the decision.”

David Lee explained that since 1996, Chinese American voter turnout has increased steadily, even in years when no Chinese American candidate was running.

That may be because Chinese Americans, for the most part, care about the same issues that their neighbors do, he said. Job opportunities, safe neighborhoods, programs for elderly, clean streets are everyone’s concerns, but, he said, “keen interest of course is on the Central Freeway, issues of taxes, bonds.” And these issues will certainly be raised during the this year’s race, he said.

Tom Hsieh, the first Chinese American to jump into a San Francisco mayoral race did much to energize the Chinese-voter base in terms of spurring voter participation, said Lee.

Lee also said CAVEC polls show that in 1991 voters cited the ethnic media’s coverage of Hsieh’s historic candidacy as the reason to register to vote.

“The year 1991 was a different time for Asian American political aspirants,” Lee said, but since then there has been a steady stream of Asian Americans elected to office.

Though voter turnout has increased over the years, Lee asserted that Yee’s candidacy could have generated a similar excitement. “He did have a potential to energize the base.”

Still, Lee maintained that with this race, a lot of issues will be raised, and less emphasis would be placed on a particular candidate. “Given the momentum we’ve seen since1991, the Chinese will be voting regardless,” he said.

THE MONEY TRAP
Leland says he’s bowing out because he doesn’t want to spend all his time raising money, but political observers say he may be succumbing to the fact that he might not be able to garner enough monetary support.

To that respect Yee responded: “People can interpret that to mean that if you don’t have that amount of money that you will not be able to be that competitive -- as the people become a little wiser, as people become a little bit more cynical, they might not be that responsive to that amount of money. With each progressive campaign the issue of money may not be that critical but at least right now for this particular campaign it seems that it is going to be particularly critical.”

Jim Ross, a political consultant for Solem & Associates, expects this mayoral race to cost over $7 million, compared to the $5 million spent by Jordan and Brown in the last mayoral race. “Clint Reilly will spend maybe $2 million more; Brown will spend perhaps $3 million, the total for this race may be $7.1 million,” he said.

A 1995 campaign spending limit ordinance called for a $600,000 cap on the general election and a $400,000 for a runoff. A provision in the San Francisco Campaign Finance Reform Ordinance stipulates that if any candidate declined to comply with the voluntary cap, spending more than fifty percent of the limit, the restriction is then lifted for all candidates. The caveat is that they must raise the money at a much slower rate of $150 per donor for the primary and $100 for the runoff instead of $500 and $250 respectively.

“You have four hundred thousand registered voters,” said Ross. “On a good year, half of those will vote, so you need more than one hundred thousand to win. So you are spending more than $20 for each vote.”

Earlier in June, Reilly exceeded the campaign spending limits, giving candidates free reign to spend how ever much they want.

Overall, 952 individuals contributed a total of $132,594 to Reilly’s campaign through the filing deadline of June 30.

The list includes 874 individuals and entities who have contributed between $100 and $150 to his campaign. In addition to those listed, 78 individuals contributed less than $100 to Reilly’s campaign but are not required to publicly disclose their contributions.

Brown’s campaign raised over a $1 million, and spent only $170,000. He can continue to raise funds at the rate of $500 per donor.

Yee said that “if the campaign cap had not been broken,” he would “be running now. We had a commitment of $1 million. That was how much they were willing to spend on the campaign,” he said. “One- and-a-half million is do-able, but two to three million would have been a little bit too much.”

Yee also said that had he known earlier that Reilly exceeded his campaign spending limit of $600,000 in June, he would have decided earlier not to run.

But political consultant Jonathan Choi of Adler & Associates said that for Yee to be a viable candidate, he needed to raise the money much sooner.

“Generally speaking, a good candidate will raise it early and spend it later,” he said.

HEARTBROKEN AND DISILLUSIONED
“The emotion of supporters right now is one that is a mix of disillusionment, dispirited, sad, let-dow, and frustrated,” said a Yee supporter, Ed Liu.

Sharon Bretz of The Draft Leland Yee Campaign said members of the organizations were “heartbroken” over Yee’s decision not to run. “[Yee’s] election to be Mayor in 2000 was the great hope of the city -- that corruption and intimidation would stop,” she said.

Bretz said that in no place was intimidation more evident in Chinatown, where, she added, corruption was prominent. She described the Chinatown merchants, who “looked down to the ground with shame to say, ‘No we’re told to support Willy Brown,’ when they were asked to support Yee.

“This Draft Leland Yee Campaign was much bigger than Leland -- It’s about bringing real reform to this government, so intimidation and thugery from the Brown administration would be put to an end.”

The campaign with some 345 volunteers had raised in the last four months $335,000 in pledge money from supporters, according to Bretz.

“It’s extremely excruciating when you want to do one thing and then you realize you can’t do it and you have to do another thing,” said Yee, explaining that it is “a decision I am not very happy with.”

He added: ‘There are many, many issues that continue to irk the people and the neighborhoods. Not being able to address them from the mayorship is something that I had hoped I would not have to do.”

Yee remains critical of the mayor’s leadership. With recent FBI investigation into several city departments, Yee commented that it’s “extremely unfortunate and embarrassing to this city to have the FBI flashing their badge coming into to city departments and carting away records.

“For this Mayor to disassociate himself from all of those kinds of activities, [it’s] either disingenuous on his part or just irresponsible of those departments which report directly to him.

“If I were in his shoe I’d be figuring out ways in which to bolster my support base given the fact that you’ve got FBI running around City Hall checking things up and down I wouldn’t want to be in his position in a campaign right now,” said Yee.

Yee also questioned the mayor’s ability to deal with city’s homeless crisis. “In his final year of his first term, [Brown] is now trying to address this issue of homeless. You don’t deal with problems in the final term in the final year of the administration. You work on these with problems progressively throughout the term.”

However, Yee remains hopeful that the city will improve under a new leadership, even though he hasn’t decided on any endorsement yet.

“This city despite whatever politicians may do to it is a rather resilient city it will do well, but it can do even better if somehow we had a mayor that would be very concerned and very caring for the resources.”

Yee vows to address the problems as a member of the Board of Supervisors. “I will continue to speak out and maybe speak out even more now,” he said. As well, he said he hopes to educate the people of San Francisco, in particular the Chinese and Asian community about their responsibility and obligation to help to move the political agenda of this city.

“It is only time before the Asian community will govern this city. I hope that the Chinese community and the Asian community will govern this city with a lot dignity, with a lot of integrity and a lot of respect.”

Perla Ni contributed to this report.