Family members of Koo Ja-wook, a franchise star for the Samsung Lions in professional baseball, are backing different candidates in the June 3 local elections. While the player's father supports Daegu mayoral candidate Kim Boo-kyum of the Democratic Party of Korea, his older brother appeared at a campaign rally site for Daegu mayoral candidate Choo Kyung-ho of the People Power Party. Some say the split in endorsements within one family reflects the tight public sentiment in this Daegu mayoral race.
On the 21st, the first day of official campaigning for the June 3 local elections, most local lawmakers, including Joo Ho-young, Shin Dong-wook, Yoo Young-ha, and Kwon Young-jin, attended Choo Kyung-ho's kickoff rally in front of Hyundai Department Store in Jung-gu, Daegu. The supporter who drew particular attention that day was the player's older brother, Koo Ja-yong. He even climbed onto the campaign truck, saying, "I support candidate Choo Kyung-ho," and shouted, "Fighting!" in a show of support.
By contrast with Koo Ja-yong, the player's father, Koo Kyung-hoe, former vice president of the Elementary Football Federation of the Korea Football Association, officially declared support for candidate Kim Boo-kyum on the 18th at Kim's campaign office along with about 40 senior soccer figures from the Daegu area.
Koo, the former vice president, also read the statement of support on behalf of the senior sports figures that day. They said, "Among stadiums nationwide, 'Ra-pak' (Daegu Samsung Lions Park) has the most active scalping," arguing that the phenomenon of people even obtaining scalped tickets to go to the ballpark to relieve stress paradoxically shows the tough daily lives of Daegu citizens.
They added in unison, "Candidate Kim is precisely the leader who can build a hopeful and new Daegu," and "Only a strong candidate from the ruling party can solve Daegu's current economic crisis and the problems in sports, including soccer."
After the event, Kim posted a photo taken with the former vice president, Koo, on Facebook, writing, "I hit the jackpot." He continued, "When I shared a photo taken with teacher Koo Kyung-hoe, the young folks in the camp said, 'Candidate, you hit the jackpot today!' At first I wondered what they meant. They said 'hit the jackpot' is used when a fan meets a favorite star. That's right. I hit the jackpot today."
Some see this as showing a changed landscape in this Daegu mayoral race. In past elections, voter sentiment generally coalesced around conservative party candidates, but this time even within a single family there are split endorsements.
In an approval rating poll commissioned by KBS Daegu Broadcasting Station and conducted by Hankook Research from the 16th to the 20th, candidate Kim Boo-kyum had 40% and candidate Choo Kyung-ho had 39%, indicating a neck-and-neck contest. The survey used telephone interviews with virtual mobile numbers of 800 men and women age 18 and older residing in Daegu. The response rate was 19.2%, and the margin of error was ±3.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. For details, refer to the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.