“That work was inherently political work,” said Yoon, who is housing director at the Asian Community Development Corporation.

Yoon says he would seek to build consensus on the council, an approach that critics say progressive councilors Arroyo, Chuck Turner and Charles Yancey do not take often enough.

“Through negotiation, deal making and compromises I would get at the issues those four care about,” said Yoon. “But my approach would differ.”

Yoon, a one-time public school teacher, lists affordable housing, education reform and economic development as his top priorities. However, he has not yet formulated his positions on most issues.

He expressed skepticism about the arguments of those who voted down a recent plan to cap annual rent increases, but would not take a position on the measure.

Yoon says he favors separating the planning and development functions of the Boston Redevelopment Agency, which critics say disregards communities’ wishes. As regards to whether he would have supported significantly curtailing the BRA’s urban renewal authority, something the majority of the council failed to do in a recent vote that extended those powers to 2009, Yoon remained vague.

“The BRA’s urban renewal powers were created in a time when Boston was very different,” he said. “The BRA needs to be re-sized and shaped based on what the city needs today.”

Yoon, who grew up in rural Illinois and Pennsylvania and now lives in the Fields Corner neighborhood of Dorchester, looks to Chinese- and Vietnamese-Americans as well as other Asians and community development activists as his political base.

He plans to conduct a rigorous meet-and-greet and door-knocking campaign and reach out to political operatives and elected officials in communities of color and white communities.

“I think Sam should be reaching out to as many leaders as possible in communities of color,” said Mukiya Baker-Gomez, a well-respected campaign manager in the black community. “Endorsements are really critical, especially at the neighborhood level, because those people carry your water.”

Yoon says he has already raised over $30,000. According to the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, incumbent Murphy has only $13,668 in his war chest and Arroyo has just $2,068.