President 
Lai Ching-te, who also chairs the Democratic Progressive Party, took the party's mobile Central Standing Committee to Taoyuan on Wednesday to rally behind its mayoral candidate, Huang Shih-chieh. Lai said mayor Chang San-cheng, who is seeking re-election, was a talent for national affairs unsuited to running Taoyuan, while the young, locally raised Huang was the best fit, CNA reported. Former party chairman Hsu Hsin-liang called Huang a homegrown star student worth an all-out fight by the party.
What did the president say about Chang? Opening with tributes to Hsu and to the late democracy pioneer Wei Ting-chao, Lai said in a speech carried by CNA that he owed thanks to both Chang and Huang but was asking Taoyuan voters to back Huang. He recalled that Chang, then premier, visited Tainan 12 times in the three months after a February 2016 earthquake, when Lai was the city's mayor. He cited Global Views magazine ratings that placed Taoyuan last among the six special municipalities for resident satisfaction twice, and second-to-last twice, over the past four years. Lai likened Chang to a five-star state-banquet chef cooking local dishes, said the Taipei-born mayor had not acclimatised to the city, and said Chang, now 72, would find another four years harder. He said Huang's academic and career record did not match Chang's but that Huang was better suited to be mayor.
What is Huang promising? Presenting his platform under the slogan "Heart Taoyuan, get moving," Huang said the city did not need a "slacking, invisible mayor waiting to retire," the Liberty Times reported. He cited a metro Brown Line tender that failed seven times and a 15-month gap with no construction on planned social housing. His agenda rests on industry around the third phase of the Longtan science park, a faster build-out of the Taoyuan Aerotropolis, a second medical centre and a rebuilt real-time bus information system. He also promised an unmanned-vehicle certification centre and three counselling sessions beyond the three the central government subsidises, CNA reported.
How do party figures see the race? Party insiders quoted by the Liberty Times said moving the meeting to Taoyuan signalled the race was within range, citing Huang's Hakka roots in southern Taoyuan and the party's strength in the north. One figure in the DPP camp cited the latest polling as showing most residents rated former mayor Cheng Wen-tsan's record above Chang's. Local figures said they were cautiously optimistic of repeating the party's 2014 comeback win there, with the vote two months away.
Figures referenced: Lai Ching-te. — JudgeMarket.
