Newsmakers: KMT believes in Huang Jun-ying

Despite Huang Jun-ying's (黃俊英) relatively low approval rating in opinion polls, the KMT has set its sights on the former Kaohsiung deputy mayor as its candidate for Kaohsiung mayor.

According to Pan Chia-sen (潘家森), head of the KMT's Kaohsiung City branch office, Huang has been the party's favorite for the position for four reasons: he has the least enemies, invites the least attacks from rival candidates, enjoys the highest degree of support from local political factions and stands the biggest chance to win the support of middle voters.

In addition to his connections to academia, the I-Shou University vice president and professor also enjoys links to the Kaohsiung community, fostered during his time as deputy major.

The party believes that experience will be crucial if Huang wins a bid to represent the pan-blue camp against DPP incumbent Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) in December.

"Huang never made an enemy during his four years as deputy mayor and he has never joined an election campaign before. We expect little resistance to Huang's future campaign," Pan said.

Huang himself is upbeat that his approval rating will continue to grow now that he has officially joined the campaign, in light of the fact that his rating had risen to 20 percent in a poll released last week from 0.8 percent a few months ago.

"The low rating is reasonable because I have served in academia over the past few years. I have not been a figure in the political scene and thus have had little media exposure. Opinion polls are basically a survey of one's notability," he said.

Academic beginnings

The 61-year-old Huang began his teaching career soon after he earned his doctorate in management at the University of Iowa in 1974.

Huang taught at National Chengchi University and California State Polytechnic University before he was recruited by former premier Sun Yun-suan (孫運璿) to join the Cabinet's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission in 1979.

During his eight years of service at the commission, he headed the Research and Development Department for one year after which he was promoted to the commission's vice chairman.

Huang, who was born in Kaohsiung City and moved to Yunlin County with his family at the age of four, finally had an opportunity to return to his hometown after he left the government.

He joined the faculty of National Sun Yat-sen University, located in Kaohsiung City, and it was during that time that he started to forge close connections with local communities.

As the dean of the college of management and of academic affairs, Huang earned a reputation for his active participation in the port city's affairs, joining and leading several private organizations devoted to urban development.

In 1995, Huang was appointed by then Kaohsiung mayor Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) to become Wu's deputy, with his professional training in management and his active involvement in the development of the city being cited as the major reasons behind his appointment.

Huang worked with Wu for four years until he rejoined the faculty at National Sun Yat-sen University after Wu lost his re-election bid to Hsieh in 1998.

Cross-party support

With the year-end mayoral race expected to become a showdown between the rival pan-green and pan-blue camps, a plus for Huang's bid against Hsieh is that he has the approval of many local politicians across party lines.