2010 Election: Early Harvest

Out and about and capturing candidates as they woo voters in local areas. Outside of Dongshih a DPP candidate wishes voters a safe drive and hopes things go their way.

In Taiping a female candidate all in pink, probably from the KMT (no party affiliation listed) hang over an old sign for a DPP female candidate.

Heard over the grapevine: it will likely to be Frank Hsieh as the DPP candidate for the new Taichung municipality. It is highly improbable that any DPP candidate can defeat Jason Hu, the popular mayor, especially as new projects such as rail line restructing, the metro, and bike paths along the rivers, are going in as the election approaches, stimulating the local economy and creating more money flows into local patronage networks. The DPP's reasoning is that if they put a big name in Taichung, it will attract resources to the party, while forcing the KMT to divert resources to Taichung that could be used in the key races in Shinbei (the City Formerly Known As Taipei County) and Taipei City. It's good strategy, even if victory is unlikely.

But Frank Hsieh?

In Guishan DPP candidates implore voters to pick them. The DPP surprised everyone by winning the township chief post here in what was generally thought to be a Blue area.

The referendum on ECFA that the DPP and TSU are pushing will never be permitted to take place, I've heard from well-placed observers. Nevertheless, note that pan-Green pressure has forced the government to retreat to claims that it never opposed the referendum. Further, by keeping the pressure on, the DPP is forcing ECFA to have fewer destructive concessions. I should note that the DPP is also creating conditions whereby when the Party comes back to power, it can repudiate ECFA by claiming that it is an illegitimate treaty created by a cabal of pro-China loons that has no public support.

Also in Guishan, the DPP team.

This sign for a candidate for city council, with no party affiliation given....

...was replaced by this sign, which says the candidate is from the DPP.

KMT candidate. Note that.....

...in most of the pictures I have taken so far, the candidates are in ties, at least.

A candidate looks spiffy with a map in the background.

In Hsinshe, same candidate as the first pic.

Separated at birth? Karl hangs out under a sign for a candidate who cries that farmer's bellies cannot go hungry.

A KMT candidate overlooks Songchu Rd in Taichung.

In Tanzi in Taichung County.

In Dongshih, a major fruit-growing area, this candidate's poster emphasizes that she works for agriculture and is closest to Taiwan's farmers.
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Daily Links:

• Taiwan Matters! on how the ISO helps Beijing.
• Steve Crook: lessons learned from the Deafolympics and World Games
• Taiwan-China flight diverted after bomb threat.
• Last week I pointed out the destructive effects of smuggling from China on the nations it trades with and observed that ECFA will lead to massive increases in such items. This week Science Daily with a piece on a researcher who uses pollen to detect smuggled Chinese honey, routed through third countries, that is destroying the US domestic industry.
  
• Don't Panic, Go Organic at Foreign Policy -- a mag so much more interesting and readable than Foreign Affairs.
  

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