Democratic Lawmaker Says Jung Won-oh "Too Reserved" to Win Seoul Voters

Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Han-kyu attributed his party's failure to reclaim the Seoul mayoralty in the June 3 local elections to a passive and overly reserved campaign. Because Democratic Party candidate Jung Won-oh had led People Power Party candidate Oh Se-hoon from the early stages of the race, Kim said, the campaign was not aggressive in countering Oh's real estate offensive and negative attacks.

Speaking on CBS Radio's "Park Jae-hong's Showdown" on Thursday night, Kim said, "Even today, among our lawmakers we talked a lot about 'why did we lose the Seoul mayoral election.'" He added, "There seem to be more than 100 reasons, but while the People Power Party ran a really good campaign, there were problems with our party's campaign."

He continued, "When the special counsel investigation into the withdrawal of charges shifted the landscape a bit, even then there was quite a lot to attack the incumbent mayor on by going at it head-on, but failing to properly respond to that was a fatal mistake." He said, "The real estate issue was significant, and the problem of Seoul's voters in their 20s was a constant, and we should have shown our supporters and ordinary citizens who our candidate was, but we failed to do so."

Kim said, "(Jung) always wore a neatly pressed suit and, with a very reserved expression, said things similar to what Mayor Oh Se-hoon said, so he could not give our lawmakers, the campaign, or our supporters any conviction about 'what exactly the Democratic Party's real estate policy is.'" He said the passive campaign strategy, as if playing it safe, was the fatal mistake.

He also said, "Honestly, I'm a Democratic Party National Assembly member myself, and I don't know Jung Won-oh. I've only seen him through broadcasts, and I still don't really know what kind of person he is." He added, "If even I feel this way, I suspect ordinary Seoul citizens feel it even more." He continued, "Ordinary citizens, those who are not highly engaged in politics, would have wondered who the Democratic Party's representative figure was in the capital city of Seoul going up against a heavyweight candidate like Oh Se-hoon, but it seemed we failed to properly provide that answer until the election ended."