Support for Li Si-chuan, the Kuomintang's candidate for mayor of New Taipei, has gone from a double-digit lead to trailing the Democratic Progressive Party's Su Chiao-hui within six months — bad news for the blue camp's electoral prospects.

• The latest poll shows Su Chiao-hui leading 37.8% to 32.2%, marking a "golden cross."
• For the past 30 years Li Si-chuan has served as a deputy standing beside the mayor, and has never been placed under the voters' magnifying glass.
• Family controversies, shifting accounts of the source of the funds for his luxury apartment in Banqiao, and the high salary he drew from a construction firm after leaving his Kaohsiung post have all become lines of attack.
• His reputation for engineering expertise has, ironically, produced the most trouble: flooding in Neihu, delays on a NT$7.44 million sunshade, rusting bus shelters, and a policy platform illustrated with botched AI-generated images.
• His remarks about the 307 bus route running on the freeway, and his misstatement of where he was posted at the time of the 921 earthquake, have further damaged his image, with even a blue-leaning media host publicly writing off his chances.

Outlook: The closer voting day gets, the more intense the scrutiny will become. If Li Si-chuan cannot turn around his image problem and his inconsistent accounts, the gap could widen further.