Taiwan's blue and white camps are blocking each other over nominations for next year's local elections. The white camp wants to trade a concession in Changhua for KMT support for its own candidate in Zhubei — bad news for cooperation between the two parties, and good news for the DPP.

• The TPP's Chiu Chen-yuan is insisting on running for Zhubei mayor, and Ko Wen-je says he will "see the race through to the end," because Zhubei is where the TPP has its highest level of support anywhere in Taiwan.
• At the same time, the TPP plans to field Lai Yin-chu, deputy chair of its Changhua county branch, as a candidate for county magistrate — read as a bargaining chip for a vote swap, since the KMT's Changhua candidate Wei Ping-cheng was already in a shaky position.
• Ko Wen-je is unhappy that the KMT always asks the TPP to give way for the sake of the bigger picture, and wants the two party chairs, Huang Kuo-chang and Cheng Li-wun, to hash it out directly.
• If Zhubei ends up with a four- or five-way scramble, the resentment could spill over into the Hsinchu County magistrate race and drag down the whole electoral picture.
• Huang Kuo-chang, for his part, says the dispute in Hsinchu should stay in Hsinchu, and that in other counties and cities the TPP will do what it says it will do.

Outlook: If the two party chairs cannot reach a result soon, the blue and white camps will each dig in and run their own candidates in Zhubei, and the fallout from the breakdown could spread to Hsinchu County and Changhua.