The Taipei mayoral race has begun early, with the KMT camp making the tainted cooking oil case its main line of attack against Puma Shen — negative news for the DPP.

• Chiang Wan-an appeared in Chiayi to campaign for the party's candidate, and was stopped along the way by members of the public for photos and handshakes, turning no one away.
• Yin Wei, head of Taipei City's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, has taken on the role of attack dog, saying Shen has failed for a week to answer seven questions on the tainted oil case.
• The seven questions focus on Shen's actual job as a legislator: whether he has questioned the Executive Yuan over allegations of a cover-up, and why Lai Ching-te has not convened a National Security Council meeting.
• Yin criticised Shen for deflecting the questions with the line "then maybe I should be mayor," calling it an evasion — "asked A, answers B."
• Shen's camp said the chair of his campaign headquarters is "all Taipei residents," a line Yin turned back on him in demanding answers.

Outlook: The tainted oil case will remain the central theme of the blue camp's pursuit of Puma Shen in the near term, and exchanges between the two sides will only intensify.