Lee's 'Yonggwangro Campaign Committee' Cooling Down... No Rescue Team Seen to Rekindle the Flame

Stagnant Approval Ratings and Missed Agenda Setting
Urgent Need for a Key Heavyweight Brain
Lack of a Strategist to Coordinate Candidate Messages
Heavyweight Figures Comparable to Kim Jong-in
Lee Hae-chan, Chung Sye-kyun, Yang Jeong-cheol Mentioned

Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, is delivering opening remarks at the Central Election Countermeasures Committee meeting held at the National Assembly on the 15th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] The ‘Lee Jae-myung Election Countermeasures Committee’ is adrift due to the absence of a control tower. The candidate’s approval rating is stuck in the 30% range, and they are losing ground to the opposition in agenda-setting as well. As concerns grow both inside and outside the party and the election committee, there is a rising demand to recruit a ‘heavyweight key brain.’ With former Emergency Committee Chairman Kim Jong-in joining Yoon Seok-yeol’s People Power Party presidential campaign, voices speculating on the possible appearance of former Democratic Party leader Lee Hae-chan are also growing louder.

Lee Jae-myung’s election committee started as a ‘melting pot election committee’ composed entirely of Democratic Party lawmakers. However, it is now criticized for being mired in internal power struggles and loyalty competitions, failing to craft election strategies nimbly. There are even talks that lawmakers belonging to the committee, whose terms effectively have two and a half years left, are calculating that it is better to lose this election and secure re-election through a judgment vote in the 22nd general election (scheduled for 2024) rather than going all-in on the presidential election. Ultimately, the election committee, relying on ‘Lee Jae-myung’s solo play,’ is criticized for only amplifying the candidate’s image of blundering around without a strategist meticulously coordinating the candidate’s overall messaging.

The main problems of the Democratic Party election committee are largely ▲absence of a control tower ▲low cohesion among the lawmaker group, Gyeonggi Province network, and external figures ▲lack of targeting youth and moderate voters. In the 2017 presidential election, close aides of then-Democratic Party presidential candidate Moon Jae-in, such as former Gyeongnam Governor Kim Kyung-soo, former Democratic Research Institute Director Yang Jeong-cheol, and lawmaker Yoon Geon-young, strategically handled election strategy and messaging. In contrast, Lee Jae-myung’s election committee lacks a close-knit group to lead such roles.

A key ruling party official said in a phone interview on the 16th, “It’s not that there are too many captains causing the ship to go off course, but rather that there is no captain at all,” adding, “Without someone leading strategy above the lawmaker group, the 169-member election committee organization can quickly become a disorganized mob.” Another Democratic Party official diagnosed, “Since public opinion favors regime change, the candidate should act as the intersection rather than a subset of the party and attempt ‘differentiation,’ but that is not the case currently.” This also explains why the candidate is producing an unstable image by releasing sporadic policy agendas such as restaurant quota systems, a four-day workweek, virtual asset tax deferral, and sharing posts like ‘We need to distance from feminism’ in a haphazard manner.

Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, is attending the Central Election Countermeasures Committee meeting held at the National Assembly on the 15th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

The ‘chemical bonding’ among heterogeneous forces such as lawmakers, Gyeonggi Province connections, and external figures has still not been achieved. This has led to poor communication between the candidate and the core brain group. After the shocking defeat in the third electoral college with ‘Lee Nak-yeon 62.4%, Lee Jae-myung 28.3%,’ true ‘one-team harmony’ has yet to be realized, and lingering resentment remains. A key ruling party official said, “There are still factions mentioning ‘candidate replacement theory’ depending on the direction of investigations related to the Daejang-dong preferential treatment allegations, and lawmakers are also people who only think about winning the next general election, so it’s not easy.” Additionally, the inability to find a symbolic figure who can attract moderate and youth votes, the core strategy of the general election, and serve as the ‘face of the election’ is also a challenge.

Ultimately, attention is focused on the emergence of a heavyweight figure comparable to People Power Party’s Kim Jong-in. Alongside the roles of Lee Hae-chan and Chung Sye-kyun, former Democratic Research Institute Director Yang Jeong-cheol, who will attend a private meeting hosted by the Democratic Party’s recruited talents and proportional representation lawmakers on the 17th, is also mentioned. However, there are criticisms that former leader Lee may find it difficult to become a focal point that attracts not only Democratic Party supporters but also youth and moderate voters. Kang Hoon-sik, a lawmaker in charge of political coordination for the Democratic Party election committee, said on the radio that day, “The candidate is well aware of the criticism that the election committee is not nimble,” adding, “The election committee is moving from the first stage of the one-team, melting pot strategy to the second stage, where speed, agile response, and field-oriented aspects will be reflected in the changes.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.