Voices within the People Power Party (PPP) are growing louder for an "each-fighting-its-own-battle" strategy ahead of the June 3 local elections. As leadership risks came into focus following PPP Chairman Jang Dong-hyuk's visit to the United States, candidates in key battlegrounds are moving swiftly to form independent election campaign committees distanced from the central party. A sense of crisis that "elections cannot be fought under the current conditions" is spreading across regional units.
According to political sources on Wednesday, Park Heong-jun, the incumbent Busan Mayor and the PPP's candidate for the Busan mayoral race, said on SBS Radio Tuesday that he would form an independent campaign committee to win the election. "Rather than scoring points in the nomination process, the party lost so many points that it ended up eroding the overall party approval rating," Park said. "Now we need to quickly wrap up nominations and erase the image of disarray, division, and repeating past mistakes. We need a campaign committee that can run the election properly."
He added, "Most incumbent local government heads from our party have delivered strong performances, so the role of regional campaign committees is important this election, and we should be judged on these achievements. But even if we work ourselves to the bone — as they say in Busan dialect — things can go wrong if the central party loses points."
Park's camp is seeking to broaden its base by bringing in Rep. Joo Jin-woo, a former rival in the primary, as standing chairman of the campaign committee. Within the PPP, this is being described as "a move to strengthen a distinctive color differentiated from the central leadership, even though mayor-centered campaign committees are standard practice."
Similar currents are detected in Seoul and the TK (Daegu-North Gyeongsang) region. Bae Hyun-jin, chair of the Seoul branch of the PPP, is expected to begin forming a "Seoul-style campaign committee" as soon as nominations for the Seoul mayoral candidate, city council members, and district heads are completed. She previously said, "Even if Jesus himself were to run in the metropolitan area, it wouldn't work," signaling her intention to build a campaign committee with a different color from the current leadership and nomination management committee.
In the TK region, Lee Cheol-woo, candidate for North Gyeongsang Province governor, has proposed forming a joint campaign committee, and Choo Kyung-ho, a preliminary candidate for Daegu mayor, shares the view that such a body is necessary. Analysts say this reflects a sense of urgency to defend the conservative stronghold as the Democratic Party accelerates its push into Daegu by placing former Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum at the forefront.
Distrust toward the leadership has been further amplified following Chairman Jang Dong-hyuk's U.S. trip. Jang departed on the 11th for a five-night, seven-day visit to Washington, D.C., where he met with officials from the U.S. State Department, the White House National Security Council (NSC), federal lawmakers, and think tanks. However, both inside and outside the party, criticism followed that he "left his post with the election just around the corner." Meeting with Korean correspondents in Washington, Jang pushed back, saying, "There can be different views on what matters most when it comes to the role of party chairman."
The debate over forgoing a nomination in the Busan Buk-gu A by-election is also deepening rifts within the party. The argument — that the party should not field a candidate in the district where former PPP Chairman Han Dong-hoon has declared his candidacy — is being raised by Han's allies and some Busan lawmakers as a strategic choice to prevent the splitting of conservative votes. The leadership, however, has drawn a line, stating, "As a public political party, our principle is to field candidates." Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo of the PPP also criticized the no-nomination argument, saying, "Is it the role of a public political party to treat a candidate who is running hard on the ground as an invisible person?"
