The Democratic Progressive Party has formally launched its Kaohsiung campaign with a show of unity, good news for the green camp and pressure on the Kuomintang, which is hoping to take southern Taiwan.

• Lai Jui-lung registered alongside Mayor Chen Chi-mai and the green camp's city council candidates, promoting a "Kaohsiung Grand Alliance" with the full slate on board.
• Chen Chi-mai publicly endorsed him, calling Lai Jui-lung the city government's best helper — in effect handing him the mantle of municipal continuity.
• Lai Jui-lung reached for a baseball metaphor to cast himself as the "cleanup hitter," stressing that ten years in the city government plus ten years in the legislature mean he can hit the ground running.
• Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an opened fire over the funding for the Cianjhen Fishing Port redevelopment; Lai Jui-lung shot back that his information was wrong and called for a public debate, spreading the blue-green crossfire across city and county lines.
• Street polling shows Lai Jui-lung trailing the Kuomintang's Ko Chih-en, so the actual state of the race is less rosy than the rally scenes suggest.

Outlook: With candidates in all five special municipalities registering on the same day, the campaign has formally entered its heated phase, and long-distance sniping between the blue and green camps will only grow more frequent ahead of the November 28 vote.