It appears that Ed Lee has changed his mind.

San Francisco's mayor, who was appointed to the job after promising he would not seek election in November, is expected to announce sometime next week that he will run after all, sources told The Chronicle.

Such a move would leave more than enough time to meet the Aug. 12 deadline to file as a mayoral candidate.

Lee, 59, is visiting relatives in Washington state after seeing his two adult daughters last weekend in New York, where he discussed with them the implications of a run.

"I spent some good time with the daughters and the wife talking about what we want to do and what it means," Lee said Tuesday before leaving for Seattle, where he grew up. "They've also been asking me how I feel, whether I'm healthy and when am I going to play another round of golf - which I hope to this week."

Lee insisted before leaving San Francisco that he hadn't made up his mind about whether to run despite a handful of groups that have surfaced to urge him to do so.

"I am nothing but focused on our budget right now and on the financial stability of the city," he said.

Yet four city officials said it is clear to them that Lee has nearly finalized his decision. Each asked to remain anonymous since Lee has not announced what he will do.

Two of them said the official word likely would come next week, as efforts to draft the mustachioed, mild-mannered former city administrator appear headed for a crescendo.

Feinstein says run

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the state's senior U.S. senator, was appointed to fulfill the remainder of assassinated Mayor George Moscone's term in 1978 and elected the next year to the first of two terms. This week she officially joined the chorus of supporters calling for Lee to run.

Progress for All, the group behind the "Run, Ed, Run" campaign and one of three groups that have formed to encourage a Lee candidacy, is holding a rally Monday on the steps of City Hall and intends to deliver to Lee its petition calling on him to run.

The group, which has spent more than $59,000 on signs, advertising and other steps and has the active backing of Lee confidante and Chinese Chamber of Commerce consultant and power broker Rose Pak, says it has collected 40,000 signatures. Other vocal supporters include former Mayor Willie Brown.

Enrique Pearce, a political consultant hired to coordinate the "Run, Ed, Run" effort, said the rally will mark the conclusion of their drafting campaign.

"The 'Run, Ed, Run' campaign must come to a close," Pearce said. "Within a few days, the mayor has to make a decision one way or the other. ... We just want to make sure we're presenting the petition before any final decision is made."

The mayor was not expected to attend the rally to receive the petition personally, Pearce said.

"If he did, I'd be shocked," Pearce said. "But, of course he's welcome."

Lee shouldn't expect such a welcoming reception from some of the nine serious contenders out of more than 30 candidates running to succeed him.

Pledged not to run

Three of the candidates - Bevan Dufty, Michela Alioto-Pier and David Chiu - were among the six members of the Board of Supervisors who voted in January to appoint Lee as interim mayor under the premise that he would not run in November.

Lee promised five of those six supervisors he would not run for a full term, they said. The sixth, Supervisor Carmen Chu, said she never asked Lee to make that pledge.

After being appointed to serve the final year of Gavin Newsom's mayoral term after Newsom was elected lieutenant governor, Lee repeatedly said publicly that he would not run and wanted his old job back as city administrator.

"One of the things I want to restore in the city is trust," Lee said in January. "So that I could look supervisors in the eye and say, if you say you're going to do something, and I say I'm going to do something, you can trust that it'll get done."