RIORDAN'S PROTEGE IS OFF, RUNNING.

Byline: Kimit Muston Local View

I have good news and bad news. The good news is, if you were delayed while attempting to traverse Beverly Glen Canyon about 10 o'clock on a recent Saturday morning the cause was not just another annoying bicyclist on that narrow winding road. That particular annoying bicyclist was the mayor, pedaling from Brentwood to Sherman Oaks because his car broke down. Again.

The bad news is that traffic in Los Angeles has got so terrible his honor was only 20 minutes late. The mayor was heading for a press conference held by his protege, Steve Soboroff.

Not to worry about those of us left waiting; the Soboroff campaign set out coffee, bagels and four kinds of wine, which, given the hour, implied that someone in the Soboroff campaign has a very low opinion of the press. Accurate but low.

We were gathering to witness Soboroff's announcement that he is running for mayor, which hardly qualifies as news since the commissioner of parks has been running for over a year. Still, the rules of politics require a candidate to hold an official announcement press conference.

The rules also say these things must have a revival-meeting feeling to them, with the candidate surrounded by throngs of true believers. James Hahn, the city attorney who is also running for mayor, held his announcement in South Central Los Angeles but outdoors - which made his supporters look like 10 people waiting for a bus.

Soboroff held his big moment inside his Valley campaign headquarters, following the political feng-shui way of jamming everyone into a quarter of the space available, which made his 50 or so supporters look like four hundred. Clever people, these consultants.

The Soboroff volunteers are loyal Republicans. One proudly told me she had first worked for Richard Nixon and gave me a dirty look when I asked which one. Still, they seemed like nice folks and they believe in their man, the proof of which being they showed up on time to be props for his photo op.

When he finally arrived Mayor Riordon smiled for the cameras. I hope no one photographed him below the waist, as he was wearing bicycle pants and nobody looks good in those things. His honor made up for his tardiness in his praise. There wouldn't be a Staples Center without Steve. There wouldn't be an Alameda corridor without Steve. There wouldn't be parks without Steve. His praise matched so well with the Soboroff campaign slogan, ``A problem solver, not a politician,'' that I began to suspect if Steve Soboroff were not a politician then he must have some of those despised creatures working for him.

When he took the podium himself Soboroff talked about Big Brothers, an organization of which he is the Los Angeles chairman. He even paraded two ``little brothers'' before the cameras. Well, perhaps paraded is too strong a word. He couldn't have been obeying the political rule that everything in a politician's life must be shamelessly exploited, since he is not a politician.

What Soboroff is, is wealthy. His campaign has turned down matching funds, which means that unlike the other candidates he has no limit on how much he can spend - and he is spending a lot. His first-strike television ads are already running. And in one of them this nonpolitician fires off the political big gun: He wears a sweater. Now what crass politician would do something as folksy as that?

Still, the campaign will not be easy to win. There are 16 people running for mayor, six of them serious contenders: two Latinos, a woman, a couple of African-Americans and a couple of white liberals. Soboroff has little name recognition and he is pushing a Republican agenda in a Democratic town.

But if nobody knows him, he gets to define himself as an average Joe pledged to save kids, parks, schools and jobs, all without stooping to get involved in dirty politics. With his ads running unchallenged he also gets to define everybody else as ``politicians.'' In a field this big it's unlikely anyone will get 50 percent or better of the vote the first time around. If Soboroff can come in second in the April election, his opponent in the runoff may well be broke. So Soboroff could be the next mayor of Los Angeles if he convinces voters he is not politically savvy enough to win the election or to achieve his campaign promises once in office.

Don't you just love politics?