Surprise: DPP re-elects chair!

Ok, it’s not a surprise at all.  Cai Yingwen 蔡英文 was re-elected, beating You Qing 尤清 by a margin of 78192 to 8406.  That’s 90.3% to 9.7% for  those of you who have always wondered what a 90% butt-whooping would look like.  You blamed the defeat on factional maneuvering, as in “none of those factions, or anyone else, supported me.”

Somewhat more unexpectedly, after the vote was finalized, Cai also announced she will run for Xinbei City mayor.  I’m sure I’ll have something more to say about this over the next few months.

The race that I was watching most closely was the party chair race in Taipei City.  The incumbent chair was a Chen Shuibian crony, Huang Qinglin 黃慶林.  Huang was also one of Cai’s most vocal critics within the party.  Huang was defeated soundly by Taipei City Council member Zhuang Ruixiong 莊瑞雄.  I believe Zhuang belongs to the Frank Hsieh faction of the party.

Grandparents don’t like Cai

The DPP chair race between Cai Yingwen 蔡英文 and You Qing 尤清 is being presented as the “Grandpa and Grandma Faction” 公媽派 (supporting You) against everyone else.  In other words, only the old people (and Taiwan independence fundamentalists) in the DPP are opposing Cai.  I’m not sure whether the media invented this term or if it comes from Cai supporters.  Either way, it is brilliant in marginalizing the challengers to Cai.

Today, most of the DPP legislators signed a statement in support of Cai.  At the time of the report I read, 24 (of 33) had signed.   The holdouts included Cai Tongrong 蔡同榮, Wang Xingnan 王幸男, and Guo Wencheng郭玟成.  I don’t know much about Guo, but Cai (a longtime overseas independence activist) and Wang (who once tried to assassinate Chiang Chingkuo) are the very essence of this idea of old, out of touch radicals.

You Qing contests DPP chair

The DPP’s deadline for registering to contest the upcoming party chair election is tomorrow.  Today, former Taipei County executive You Qing 尤清 registered his candidacy.  He suggested that current chair Cai Yingwen 蔡英文 should run for Xinbei City mayor instead of running for re-election as chair.  You is currently also running for the DPP’s nomination for Xinbei City mayor.  (Yes, that doesn’t make much sense.  Meet You Qing.)  You declared that if he were elected party chair, he would give up his candidacy for mayor.

You was accompanied by former Examination Yuan president Yao Jiawen 姚嘉文, legislator Cai Tongrong (Trong Chai) 蔡同榮, Zhang Guimu 張貴木 (a crony of former Vice President Lu 呂秀蓮), and former Taipei County legislators Zhang Qingfang 張清芳 and Wang Shuhui 王淑惠.  The first three are the important ones, and the common thread is that they are all Kaohsiung Incident Era figures and all Taiwan Independence fundamentalists.  That’s a pretty succinct description of the DPP factions that do not support Cai Yingwen.