Labor attorney and organizer Nathaniel Kinney finished third in a field of 14 candidates vying in the special election held to fill the District 5 seat on the Honolulu City Council.  In spite of running a spirited campaign, Nat could not overcome the high political profiles of veterans Ann Kobayashi and Matt Matsunaga.

Kobayashi, a vocal critic of Mayor Mufi Hannemann regarding the City’s mass transit project, won with 7,658 votes.  Matsunaga finished second with 6,284 votes, and Nat received 3,822 votes.

A political newcomer, Nat took unpaid leave of absence to campaign full-time — expressing the need to protect current jobs and to create new ones.  Hoping to bring a new perspective to the Council, his goals were to incorporate Project Labor Agreements into the City’s procurement process to help ensure jobs for our membership, guarantee wages and benefits, and most of all, provide safe working environments for workers.

Nat received endorsements from the Hawaii Government Employees Association, the Hawaii State AFL-CIO, the Hawaii Carpenters Union, the Operating Engineers of Hawaii, the Hawaii Fire Fighters Association, and the Hawaii Building and Construction Trades Council, amongst others.  Mahalo to everyone who helped Nat’s hard-fought grassroots campaign!