The DPP has attacked Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an over his eldest son's publicly funded exchange trip to the US, labelling the family as "privileged elites," but the offensive appears to have done limited damage to his electoral prospects.

• Chiang Wan-an's eldest son was accepted into a city government Department of Education exchange programme for a year in the US and Canada; the Green camp has criticised this as an abuse of privilege and a failure to recuse over conflicts of interest.
• Some have drawn comparisons to Sean Lien, who lost to Ko Wen-je in 2014, but Chiang worked his way up through elections starting as a legislator and has cultivated a down-to-earth image, making the "wealthy dynasty" label harder to attach.
• Puma Shen, the DPP's nominee, also comes from a well-off family; with similar backgrounds on both sides, the "privilege card" is difficult to play as a class contrast.
• The Blue camp stresses that the child is a minor protected under the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act, and if the Green camp presses too hard it risks being accused of bullying a child.
• The real vulnerability is the vagueness of the city government's and the Department of Education's account of conflict-of-interest recusal and administrative transparency, but the Green camp has so far produced no evidence that the mayor intervened in the selection process.

Outlook: Barring the emergence of decisive evidence, the controversy is expected to fade as public attention shifts elsewhere, with little impact on Chiang Wan-an and the KMT in the Taipei race.