When Angela Alioto says the city of San Francisco has embraced her, she means it literally.

“People hug me all the time,” she said. “They come up and say, ‘I just want to hug a little of the old San Francisco.’ I tell them, ‘I’m not that old.’”

Ever since family patriarch Joe Alioto was the mayor from 1968 to 1976, the unofficial rule of San Francisco politics has been that an Alioto must be in office somewhere. But since Angela’s niece Michela Alioto-Pier left the Board of Supervisors in 2011, there had been an Alioto drought.

No longer. Alioto easily won a seat on Democratic County Central Committee in the June 7 election, finishing first in District 19 and outpolling well-known politicians like Supervisors Mark Farrell, Eric Mar and Norman Yee.

“I’m trying to be humble,” Alioto said. “But it was a nice victory.”

For the huge slate of candidates in what turned out to be an extremely competitive race, Alioto’s victory had to be maddening. While others raised large sums, blanketed neighborhoods with mailers and pushed big-name endorsements, Alioto seemed to treat the campaign as a lark.

First, she dialed up some of San Francisco’s most established names, from Salesforce founder Marc Benioff to theatrical producer Carole Shorenstein Hays to socialite Dede Wilsey, for donations.

Once she got the money, she put together a distinctly low-key campaign.

“I decided to run the afternoon before the filing deadline,” she said. “We put up nine billboards that said, ‘Angela Alioto.’ We paid into one mailer, and I did a robocall the night before the election.”

And she won in a walk. It reminds us of the power of the Alioto name, but it was also very Angela.

She’s a bit of a character, strong of opinions and always ready to take a controversial stand. When she pushed through the first city smoking ban in 1993 as a member of the Board of Supervisors, she was a political lightning rod.

“People used to spit at me,” she said. “They were so angry. They hit me with their canes.”

She’s been out of the arena since she was termed out in 1998 after eight years as a supervisor, including a stint as board president. She ran for mayor three times, coming closest in 2003, when she finished just over three percentage points behind Matt Gonzalez for a spot in the runoff against eventual winner Gavin Newsom.

It would be safe to say Alioto, an attorney who is proud of her record in discrimination trials, has not mellowed. She’s already in a dustup with District Three Supervisor Aaron Peskin because she thinks he is working behind the scenes to stop her plan for a courtyard plaza in North Beach called Piazza Saint Francis, or the Poets Plaza.

“You know how Aaron ran on the I’m-a-changed-person thing?” she said. “Are you kidding? I think he is worse than before — with a vengeance.”

Expect more of the same. Winning a DCCC spot is often a precursor to a run for a bigger office. Alioto says she doesn’t have a master plan, but...

“I get calls to run for mayor all the time,” she said. “I’m not passionate about politics. I am passionate about the issues.”

As for Peskin, when I texted him for a comment, he replied: “I will continue to take the high road and stay above the fray.”

Rainbow rider: Bay Area BikeShare bicycles are so commonplace that most San Franciscans hardly give them a second look.

But during Pride week, it will be worthwhile to keep an eye out for a rainbow. One, and only one, BikeShare bike has been painted in rainbow colors. If you see the bike, you can take a photo of it and post it on social media with the hashtag #pridebike.

That will enter you in a contest for which the grand prize is a ride on the bike in Sunday’s Pride Parade.

The contest is a way of attracting attention to a major expansion of the program, which lets people rent a bike at one location and return it at another.

The current 700 bikes will be increased to 7,000 over the next two years — 6,999 of which will not have a rainbow paint job.

Judging the judge: Everyone in charge emphatically denies that this has anything to do with recent public outcry about “smash and grab” burglaries from parked cars, but it’s worth noting:

On Friday, Judge Loretta Giorgi of San Francisco Superior Court sentenced an auto burglary defendant to three years in state prison. There have been many complaints that the district attorney’s office is reluctant to bring such cases to trial and that judges have been unnecessarily lenient, often knocking a felony charge down to a misdemeanor.

Not this time.

C.W. Nevius is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. His columns appear Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: cwnevius@sfchronicle.com Twitter: cwnevius