Run Ed Run Campaign Gains Steam

They said they wanted a caretaker, not a politician, to step into Gavin Newsom's shoes. Ed Lee said he was their man. Now they're saying they want the caretaker to be a politician. And he's not saying anything -- yet.

There's a movement afoot to make the "caretaker" San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee the full-time man for the job, even though not running for the office in the November election was one of the prerequsites for former City Administrator Lee accepting the interim mayor position in early January, after Newsom was sworn in as lieutenant governor.

A cadre of former supervisors and other supporters went public with a Draft Ed Lee for Mayor Web site on Wednesday, a week after a polling company phoned voters to ask what they'd think of a Lee run in November, and the same day news of that poll broke in SF Weekly.

Ed Lee got into the fun a bit on Tuesday, beginning a press conference with the words, "I'm announcing my candidacy - for being the lead of the pothole crew."

Later, Lee joked that the only running he's doing is "running away" from the idea of jumping into the mayor's race, the San Francisco Chronicle reported today. Then he turned serious, saying, "I am sure I am not going to run. This has not been my agenda and it never has been."

Yet Lee supporters point out that's exactly what Lee said before he was convinced to take the interim mayor gig. And now, with the filing deadline Aug. 12, "we're working to change his mind," said former Supervisor Michael Yaki, co-founder of the Draft Ed Lee Organizing Committee.

Former Mayor Willie Brown, who helped organize Lee's push into office, has also been publicly supportive of a full term in office for Lee, using his SF Chronicle column to beat the drum for Lee.

Yaki is a former Brown appointee.