She had not previously been involved in politics, but started building her network of hua khanaen and supporters about one year before the Senate election. According to him, the people in Bang Pakong etc. liked Phanee, and he expected that she would certainly win one of the two MP seats in constituency 2. This would leave only one seat for the two Democrat and the two PPP candidates, Wuthipong and Thitima Chaisaeng.

This perspective seems to be shared by the Chaisaeng family. Reportedly, the family wanted Wuthipong to run alone. After all, he had been groomed for many years for a career in politics, while Thitima is a relative newcomer based on TRT’s success. However, Thitima did not want to stand back. Since Phanee is seen as a sure bet, voters will have one more vote to give away. They might not use it, and it is not expected that they will give it to Phanee’s running mate. As a result, of those voters of Phanee who are also in favor of a member of the Chaisaeng family some will vote for Thitima and others for Wuthipong. This will reduce their level of votes, instead of concentrating the votes on only one Chaisaeng candidate. In effect, this is an intra-family electoral competition. This situation could be fatal if the Democrat candidates can put in a strong showing.

If Phanee can make it in constituency 2, the choice will be between Wuthipong and Thitima. However, that member also thought that the people might be bored of the old (not in terms of age) candidates, which might open the way for one Democrat candidate. One must keep in mind here, that, in the 2006 election, both Thitima and Wuthipong got fewer votes than no-vote votes and invalid ballots combined. Thus, there was a lot of voter dissatisfaction at that time, and they expressed it by their ballot papers (this did not in the same way apply to Somchai and Suchart). Thus, one will have to wait whether the same voters intend to make a more general electoral point here. So far, the Chaisaengs campaign on an “elect both” approach. It remains to be seen whether they will later switch to push for one of them (also to make the work of their hua khanaen easier; but a similar switch had backfired in an election some years earlier, when the choice was between Anan and Chaturon), and save the other for the Senate elections early in 2008.

“News reports have surfaced claiming some top CNS brass were planning a trip to Geneva to persuade Unctad director-general Supachai Panichapakdi to head the new Puea Pandin political melting pot of old guard such as Phinij Jarusombat, Vatana Asavahame and Somsak Thepsuthin, all of whom require no introduction.” (19-09-2007)

“The most interesting race will be in Chachoengsao, where former Thai Rak Thai politicians will battle each other with Chaturon Chaisaeng, a leader of the PPP, and Phinij Jarusombat and Suchart Tancharoen from Puea Pandin facing off. ” (06-11-2007)

“Phinij Jarusombat – “The Wang Phayanak Head”. Mr Phinij, a member of a previous Thaksin cabinet, was also banned from politics for five years…He earlier headed the so-called Wang Phayanak faction, whose members mostly represented northeastern constituencies. Mr Phinij is known to have quietly joined the Peua Pandin party, with a dozen ex-MPs at his command.” (BP 07-11-2007)

“According to Mr Nitiphum, initially he did not plan to run in the coming general election, but core members of Puea Pandin, particularly Preecha Laohapongchana and Phinij Jarusombat, had persuaded him to work on international trade policies related to 53 African and 23 Middle Eastern countries. As this was his area of expertise, he agreed to join the party and would be part of the team tasked with outlining the party’s international trade and education policies.” (BP 10-11-2007)

“Some of the VIPs spotted in these European havens included Council for National Security secretary-general Winai Phattiyakul, and such members of the National Legislative Assembly as Visanu Krue-ngarm, Borwornsak Uwanno, Phinij Jarusombat and Meechai Ruchupan, the NLA president. Some went there to shop, others to talk shop and relax with their families.” (19-04-2007)

“Phannee Charusombat. She is the younger sister of Phinit, an important member of TRT, who after its dissolution moved to Phuea Phaendin. Phinit used to be an MP candidate in Chachoengsao many years ago, having been born in Ban Pho district, but had moved away to another region. Until, recently, he had not played any significant political role in Chachoengsao. However, he had fielded Phanee in the Senate election of 2006, in which she came first with the truly astonishing amount of 120,586 votes, ahead of another brother of Suchart, Chaloemchai, who received merely 51,199 votes.”