When it comes to Chinese-American voters, Mayor Ed Lee has a leg up on his potential competition, according to a new poll conducted by Chinese-language newspaper Sing Tao Daily.

Their new poll shows that while Chinese voters in San Francisco have no clear favorite among current candidates, if Lee were to enter the race, one out of four would pick Lee as their favorite. Keep in mind that this poll was conducted by the newspaper and not by a polling company.

The newspaper randomly polled 280 registered voters of Chinese descent by telephone based on data from the Department of Elections. A whopping 87.1 percent said they were likely to vote in the upcoming election.

Maybe the most interesting tidbit is that 46.3 percent of likely Chinese voters said they would only vote for a Chinese candidate, while 20.5 percent said they would not and 33.2 percent were undecided.

Board of Supervisors President David Chiu led the pack of favorite declared candidates with 6.1 percent, state Sen. Leland Yee got 3.3 percent and Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting got 0.4 percent.

bbegin@sfexaminer.com