Taoyuan Mayor Chang San-cheng has formally registered his bid for re-election, and the Kuomintang has split the campaign into six separate battlegrounds. For the pan-blue camp it signals a step-up in campaign readiness; for the Democratic Progressive Party's challenger it raises the pressure.

• Chang did not attend in person; his campaign headquarters chairman Huang Min-kung and legislator Tu Chuan-chi registered his mayoral candidacy on his behalf.
• The KMT has abandoned its past practice of dividing the city into just northern and southern zones, instead carving it into six major battlegrounds along the lines of the six legislative districts, each supervised by one legislator.
• Tu Chuan-chi, who handled the registration, is the very candidate who defeated DPP mayoral hopeful Huang Shih-chieh in the 2024 legislative election, making the choice a pre-emptive strike in the contest over Huang's home district.
• Huang Min-kung previously ran the 2022 mayoral campaign, the 2024 legislative sweep and last year's anti-recall effort, and is seen as a reliable winner for the pan-blue camp.
• Those accompanying him led with the administration's record: attracting investment in the AI supply chain and computing power centres, affordable housing, free school lunches and textbooks, and subsidies for egg freezing and childcare.

Outlook: The central theme of the race will be Chang San-cheng's record in office against Huang Shih-chieh's local base, with the decisive battle expected around Dayuan, Guanyin, Xinwu and Yangmei.