Honolulu City Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi will run for mayor in the upcoming election.

"It's kind of a thrown-together campaign," she said this morning. "I just have to do this, even though it's an uphill battle."

Former City Councilman Duke Bainum and the current state House Majority Leader Kirk Caldwell both said yesterday they will run for Kobayashi's vacated council seat.

Kobayashi announced this morning her plan to run for Honolulu mayor, giving up an unopposed seat that covers District 5.

Kobayashi's district includes Mo'ili'ili and Kaimuki.

Kobayashi, who has represented District 5 since 2001, also served as a state senator for 14 years from 1980 to 1994. She said she decided to challenge Mayor Mufi Hannemann after hearing from scores of people in her community who feel they have been ignored.

Kobayashi made the decision to enter the upcoming election after a breakfast with family and supporters this morning.

Kobayashi supports the city's planned $3.7-billion fixed guideway project, but not the steel-on-steel proposal Hannemann is pushing as the technology for the rail system.

"I voted for it but I think it should be rubber on concrete," she said.

The mass transit issue also spurred University of Hawai'i engineering professor Panos D. Prevedouros to announce he will challenge Hannemann, only Prevedouros is running on an anti-rail platform. Prevedouros announced his plans to run on July 1.

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Correction:

This story has been corrected to fix an error by The Advertiser in one of Kobayashi's quotations. The correct quote is: "I voted for it but I think it should be rubber on concrete."