Tom Cook (left) narrowly led biodiesel executive Kelly King (right) in the Maui County Council race for the South Maui seat Wednesday morning. The Maui News/Gary Kubota Photos

As of Wednesday morning, Maui County Council member Tom Cook held a narrow lead of less than 1% over biodiesel executive Kelly King in a race that could tip the scales on major issues involving hundreds of millions of dollars in future development goes.

On Wednesday, King said she expects an automatic recount because the tally is so close.

Cook was ahead in votes with 26,135 to King's 26,198, based on the state elections office's third printout released Wednesday morning. Other district council incumbents were apparently headed for re-election.

Cook, a former president of the Maui Contractors Association, is chairman of the council's water and infrastructure committee, which will look at recovery plans for the Lahaina region, which lost more than 2,000 homes and businesses to the August 2023 wildfire in the planned housing project in Honua'ula, formerly known as Wailea 670.

King is committed to promoting sustainability in agriculture and energy. She resigned from her council mandate to run unsuccessfully for mayor in 2022.

By October, the political action committee For A Better Tomorrow, with ties to the Hawaii Carpenters Union, sponsored at least three separate mailings to support some Maui candidates, including Cook, Tasha Kama and Nohe U'u Hodgins.

More than $15,000 was spent on each mailing, according to a report filed Nov. 4 with the state Campaign Spending Commission.

Kama, who holds the Kahului seat on the Maui County Council, is chairman of the House and Land Use Committee. U'u Hodgins, who holds the seat for the Makawao-Ha'iku-Pa'ia region, is chairman of the Government Relations, Ethics and Transparency Committee.

In the Aug. 10 primary, Cook led King by less than 1% with 10,136 votes compared to 9,911.

A large number – about 3,497 ballots – were blank ballots where voters chose not to cast their ballots for candidates in the South Maui race. In the federal election, the number of empty votes rose to 16.9% or 10,688 ballot papers.

By October, the political action committee For A Better Tomorrow, with ties to the Hawaii Carpenters Union, funded at least three separate mailings in support of Cook. Mailings also supported Kama and Hodgins.

More than $15,000 was spent on each mailing, according to the Nov. 4 campaign spending report.

Council members elected for the next two years will help determine the direction of recovery in Lahaina, a popular city that once generated an estimated $2.7 million in daily revenue, according to state economists.

King is vice president of Pacific Biodiesel, a renewable energy company she founded with her husband Robert King in 1995.

Founded to ease the disposal of used cooking oil in the Maui landfill, Pacific Biodiesel has built 13 biodiesel plants across the United States. King also grows sunflowers on Maui, which are used to make biofuel.

King served as a council member on several occasions and was also elected as a member of the State Board of Education from 1994 to 1998.

She has lived on Maui with her husband and two children for more than 40 years.

Prior to his election to the Maui County Council in 2022, Cook was a past president of the Maui Contractors Association and worked as a general contractor on Maui, as well as a journeyman carpenter, mason and concrete fitter.

He has served on the Maui General Plan Advisory Committee and the Salvation Army Advisory Board and is a past chairman of Maui's construction industry.

Cook is married and has five children.