One day after leaving the Taiwan Statebuilding Party, former legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) joined the campaign team of Legislative Deputy Speaker Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) in his bid to become Taichung City mayor.
Chen has agreed to become a campaign office director and spokesman for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate, Tsai said yesterday.
“We are building a strong fighting team for the campaign, and Mr Chen will play a key role,” Tsai said.
Photo: CNA
Chen and other DPP members are slated to individually lead campaigns in separate districts, along with planning and assisting in events and activities in other parts of the city, Tsai said.
“They will help me win this election,” he said.
The DPP announced Tsai’s nomination in April. His family is from Taichung’s Cingshuei District (清水), and he has won three straight legislative elections since 2012.
Tsai said that incumbent Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) “is not suitable for a second term. She has not done a good job for the city.”
“I can do much better than Lu. The people of Taichung want change,” he added.
Along with his role as deputy speaker in the legislature, Tsai is also the commissioner of Taiwan’s professional baseball league.
He has been credited for the league’s success in attaining a long-standing goal of acquiring a sixth team, which is to be based in Kaohsiung.
Chen and Tsai share a love of the game. Chen played baseball at school and on community teams, and has done some coaching. In September last year, when Chen was still a legislator, he and Tsai visited Taichung high schools together to donate balls, gloves and other baseball equipment.
Taichung voters recalled Chen in October last year, making him the first legislator in Taiwan’s history to lose a recall initiative.
Chen quit his former party on Friday. Some people with knowledge of the matter said that Chen reportedly disagreed with party executives on certain issues, while others said his perceived status as a party “star” caused some friction.
A former Kaohsiung resident, Chen in 2018 joined the Taiwan Statebuilding Party, which advocates for Taiwanese independence. Previously he had worked in the film and entertainment industries.
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