Adithya Sambamurthy/The Bay Citizen

Rose Pak in Chinatown on Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Updated 7:40 p.m. on June 2, 2011.

Chinatown political powerbroker Rose Pak has given her blessing to a new effort to build a re-election campaign for San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, even though the interim mayor continues to deny any interest in staying in the job.

In a letter dated April 27, Enrique Pearce, a political consultant who is a close confidant of Pak's, asked the Ethics Commission whether it would be legal to create a committee to raise and spend money to draft a politician and then manage the election campaign should the politician decide to run. The letter did not name Lee specifically.

Pearce sent his letter about the same time that two former supervisors formed what appears to be an unaffiliated group to push Lee to run for re-election. That group's efforts are more public and include a website, draftmayoredlee.org.

Pearce's letter has been circulating with some interest among mayoral campaigns in the city, who fear that Lee could become a frontrunner should he choose to turn back on his promise of serving one year and enter the race.

When contacted by a Bay Citizen reporter this week, Pearce at first denied that the letter was about the mayor and explained that he hatched his question hypothetically to familiarize himself with election laws.

“I certainly haven’t spoken to the mayor, if that’s your question,” Pearce said, adding that he speaks to the commission “several times a week to try to understand what the labyrinth of laws and regulations are.”

But Pearce later offered profuse praise for the mayor and said that the “time frame was short,” if Lee were to be drafted. Candidates have until August 12 to declare.

“Ed is a great leader in San Francisco and I think it’d be great for him to keep that position,” Pearce said.

Pearce acknowledged that he had Pak's support. Pak is a close friend of Lee's.  "She’s very enthusiastic. She feels very passionately that Ed’s the right guy," Pearce said.

Lee has enjoyed a significant wave of political momentum in recent weeks after reaching a pension reform deal with labor leaders and unveiling a budget that has met little opposition, even from the Board of Supervisors’ liberal wing. He also appointed Greg Suhr, a popular police veteran, to Chief of the San Francisco Police Department.

He has received overwhelmingly positive press coverage, including a rare — if grudging — commendation in the liberal San Francisco Bay Guardian as recently as Thursday.

But observers say that Lee’s image could be tarnished if he were to turn back on his pledge not to run.

“The moment he jumps in, he would be just another politician,” said Alex Clemens, a lobbyist and longtime City Hall observer. “His biggest strength right now is that he’s not another politician.”

Lee’s spokeswoman Christine Falvey said again Thursday that the mayor is not interested in running for re-election. "Mayor Lee has been very clear whenever asked that he has enjoyed his time as mayor immensely, but looks forward to returning to his role as administrator and steps have been taken to do just that," Falvey told The Bay Citizen.

Still, Pak was enthusiastic about pushing her longtime friend to run.

“I support 20, 30 groups doing this,” Pak said, before her voice broke into a mirthful cackle.

Pearce said he had not yet formed a committee to receive donations.

If Lee were to enter the race, Pearce would likely run his campaign.

Last fall, The Bay Citizen reported that Pearce may have violated campaign ethics laws when he ran Supervisor Jane Kim's campaign. City records indicated that an independent expenditure committee to elect Supervisor Jane Kim and funded largely by former Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr. appeared to operate out of Pearce’s office. Such committees are prohibited by law from coordinating their activities with campaigns.