Taichung's next mayoral race is shaping up as a straight blue-green fight, and it looks close enough that swing voters will decide it.

• The KMT's Chiang Chi-chen is running on name recognition as deputy legislative speaker and former party chairman, with backing from sitting mayor Lu Shiow-yen.
• A KMT-TPP alliance has now come together in Taichung, with both Ko Wen-je and Huang Kuo-chang lining up behind Chiang, steadying his position.
• The DPP's Ho Hsin-chun is closing the gap with old-fashioned door-to-door campaigning, having worked all 625 neighborhoods in the city.
• Ho is setting the agenda with cash handouts, free school lunches and expanded senior transit credits — proposals her rivals have since echoed.
• Two KMT stumbles are irritating middle-of-the-road voters: slow testing in a tainted cooking oil scare, and budget cuts that hit charity groups' holiday orders.

Outlook: Chiang is playing it safe from the front while Ho pushes for a crossover, and the swing vote will settle it in the final stretch.