Will Yoon's bravos become votes?

Endorsements are a bit like having a flush campaign account: They won't necessarily win a race, but they sure don't hurt.

That may be why at-large council challenger Sam Yoon, who placed fifth in the September preliminary, is campaigning with a little extra bounce in his step these days.

Yoon, who has tried to stake out ground as a consensus builder who will bring people together to solve problems, has shown a knack for bringing disparate forces together in the endorsement chase. The first-time candidate has won backing from one of the state's political masters of the inside game, House Speaker Sal DiMasi; the City Council's rump caucus of three dissidents who regularly butt heads with everyone from their council colleagues to the mayor; and the district city councilor who represents East Boston, an area where Yoon could benefit from a local boost.

His endorsement from DiMasi paid dividends for Yoon in the September preliminary, when he racked up a healthy vote total in DiMasi's North End neighborhood.

Since then, Yoon, the son of Korean immigrants and first Asian-American candidate to run for the council, has added the endorsement of the council's three minority members, Felix Arroyo, Chuck Turner, and Charles Yancey. Yoon first got to know Turner two years ago, when they worked together organizing the ''New Majority" conference, a gathering of local activists to take stock of Boston's new status as a ''majority minority" city.

Yoon, a Princeton graduate who taught public school in New Jersey before coming to Boston to direct affordable housing efforts at a Chinatown community development corporation, is learning that the endorsement game can also be tricky. Two weeks ago, he picked up the endorsement of City Councilor Paul Scapicchio of East Boston. But Scapicchio, a strong Menino ally on the council, briefly had second thoughts the next day when Yoon showed up to receive the endorsement of the Black Political Task Force at a press conference festooned with signs for mayoral challenger Maura Hennigan, who was also there to receive the group's backing.

Yoon says he had no idea he would be appearing on the same stage with Hennigan, and emphasized to Scapicchio as well as Menino campaign workers that he was making no endorsement in the mayor's race.

''The whole thing was resolved through good communication," said Yoon, who called the episode a good lesson to ''be careful about the perceptions you create."

With the air cleared, Scapicchio says his endorsement of Yoon remains fully in place. Scapicchio plans to send a letter to his constituents and record automated phone calls to his district on behalf of Yoon as well as fellow challenger John Connolly.

When it comes to endorsements packing an electoral punch, there may be no place in recent years where that has been more evident than the Brighton precinct that is home to a senior housing complex along Wallingford Road. The buildings are home to a large population of Russian Jews who have learned the value of voting, and of speaking in one voice when they do.

Taking their cue from the unofficial ward boss of Wallingford Road, Naakh Vysoky, a retired Ukrainian physician who is close to Mayor Tom Menino, the precinct turned out in big numbers for three at-large candidates in the September preliminary.

Incumbent Michael Flaherty and challengers John Connolly and Patricia White each pulled over 300 votes in the precinct, more than twice as many as anyone else in the field.

Vysoky declined to discuss the race last week.

But when it comes to the Wallingford Road precinct, ballot actions speak louder than any words.

Michael Jonas can be reached at jonas@globe.com.