Lu Chia-chen

Lu is a longtime ally of Wang Jin-pyng.^[2][3] Lu served on the township council as a representative of Tucheng District for two terms. He then was elected to the Taipei County Council, again for two terms. Lu returned to Tucheng as district leader, and ran for a seat on the Legislative Yuan near the end of his second term.^[4] He was elected to the Legislative Yuan in January 2008, defeating Lee Wen-chung,^[5] but did not take office at the start of the February legislative session. Because Lu held his Tucheng District post until March, the need for a local by-election was eliminated.^[6] Lu was sworn in as a member of the Legislative Yuan on 3 March, after jogging from Tucheng to the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.^[1][7] He faced Chuang Suo-hang in the 2012 elections and won.^[8] In April, he proposed that benefits for employees of state-run enterprise be reduced because some of the companies lost too much money to justify the benefits offered.^[9] Lu lost his seat to Wu Chi-ming in 2016.^[10]

Throughout his legislative tenure, Lu has been known to make controversial comments. In October 2008 he said of lawmaker Chiu Yi-ying, "The only way to make Chiu happy is to find her a husband."^[11] In March 2009, he opined that the health of Kaohsiung mayor Chen Chu had turned due to bad karma, as she had ordered city officials to remove a Chiang Kai-shek statue.^[12]

In April 2013, Lu's district office in Tucheng was the site of an attempted bombing.^[13] A suitcase containing an explosive was discovered in his office hours after a similar item was found in the Taiwan High Speed Rail Train 616.^[14] The two suspects were tracked to China and repatriated days after the discovery of the bombs.^[15][16] The bomb maker asserted that the bombs would not have exploded,^[17] but both suspects were indicted in June.^[18] The New Taipei District Court ruled on the case in January 2014.^[19] Upon appeal to the Supreme Court, both defendants' sentences were shortened.^[20]