UPW, Emily’s List support Kim

State Senate President Donna Mercado Kim’s congressional campaign scored two key endorsements last week from two very different groups: the local, blue-collar union United Public Workers and the Washington, D.C.-based women’s advocacy group Emily’s List.

The 13,000-member UPW represents mostly blue-collar civil service workers across the state including cafeteria workers, custodians, electricians, correctional officers, licensed nurses and nurses’ aides, refuse collectors, carpenters and mechanics.

Emily’s List describes itself as "the nation’s largest resource for women in politics" and boasts of having raised $390 million to support pro-abortion rights, Democratic female candidates.

Kim is in a crowded field of seven Democrats running for the 1st Congressional District seat that represents urban Oahu. Incumbent Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa is forgoing a re-election bid to challenge U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz.

Others seeking the Democratic nomination include Honolulu City Council members Ikaika Anderson, Stanley Chang and Joey Manahan, state Sen. Will Espero, state Rep. Mark Takai and human rights activist Kathryn Xian. Republicans include former U.S. Rep. Charles Djou.

A wide variety of notable groups and individuals are throwing their support behind the candidates, bringing with them money, volunteers and their influence to aid the campaigns.

Others endorsing Kim, whom polls show as the Democratic front-runner, include the labor unions ILWU and IBEW Local 2360.

Takai, whom polls show running second to Kim, has collected the largest number of organizational endorsements. His campaign website includes more than a dozen groups, including VoteVets, Equality Hawaii, the Sierra Club of Hawaii, the Hawaii State Teachers Association, the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, and organizations representing ironworkers, postal workers, food and commercial workers, mariners, optometrists, chiropractors, boilermakers and transit workers.

Takai also received an early endorsement by Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth who, like Takai, is an Iraq War veteran.

Among the other five Democrats:

» Anderson captured the endorsement of the Hawaii Construction Alliance, made up of the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters, the Hawaii Masons Union Local 1 and Local 630, the Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 368 and the Operating Engineers Local Union No. 3.

» Chang has a varied endorsement list, including the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Blue America PAC, Climate Hawks Vote, the Global Solutions Action Network and the Operating Engineers Local Union No. 5. He also got a statement of support from the GLBT Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaii.

» Espero said he has the backing of a number of current and former lawmakers, among them Sens. Josh Green and Clarence Nishihara, Reps. Karl Rhoads and Mele Carroll, and Councilman Ron Menor, a former state senator.

» Manahan’s endorsement list might be shorter than others, but is long in the social media world. He’s endorsed by his second cousin, musical artist Enrique Iglesias. When an Instagram photo of the two appeared on Iglesias’ Facebook fan page, more than 72,000 followers clicked "like" in approval. A similar post appeared on Iglesias’ Twitter account, which boasts an astonishing 7.6 million followers. It’s unknown how many are registered voters in the district.

» Xian, executive director for the Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, said she is endorsed by the National Women’s Political Caucus, the group Vote in Women and feminist author-activist Gloria Steinem.

The Hawaii Government Employees Association, the state’s largest white-collar government union, announced last month that it was not endorsing any candidate in the 1st Congressional District race.