If Liberal Party state headquarters had one Christmas message for its Hunter hopefuls at the March election, it would be this: lose with dignity.
Unfortunately for a party trying to cling to power in NSW, the Libs' Newcastle and Wallsend branches are destined to do nothing of the sort.
A long-running feud within the party is bubbling over again into a public stoush between opposing forces in Newcastle.
The Libs' party machine once more appears to have all but given up on winning in the Hunter, even in the once-fertile conservative ground of Port Stephens, where Labor incumbent Kate Washington has a stranglehold on the electorate.
The party is yet to announce candidates in the electorates of Newcastle, Wallsend, Charlestown, Swansea, Cessnock, Maitland, Lake Macquarie and Port Stephens but is expected to do so in January.
Only the Nationals' Upper Hunter incumbent, Dave Layzell, is in position now to defend and promote the government's record in the region.
No, all the Liberal hierarchy asks of Newcastle and the Hunter is that members don't do or say anything that could spill over into the wider political conversation.
An accusation of bullying of female party members is exactly the kind of headline head office does not want.
For a party with a perceived female problem, it's the sort of controversy that could attract the attention of the media in Sydney, where the election will be won and lost.
The party's local power struggle dates back to 2017, when allegations of branch stacking followed the arrival of the Wallsend Young Liberals into the same "local government conference" as the Newcastle branch.
Then followed allegations and counter-allegations about prohibited donors being present at a fundraiser at the Newcastle Club before last year's council election.
Liberal headquarters was unable to uncover and investigate the leakers involved in the internal shenanigans, but senior party sources said at the time that Newcastle SEC president Suzanne Evans appeared to have been sabotaged by other members involved in a power struggle.
The subsequent election delivered the Libs three new representatives on Newcastle council in Callum Pull, Jenny Barrie and Katrina Wark. The party's only incumbent councillor in 2021, Brad Luke, retired and did not contest the vote.
Party figures have been at loggerheads with the two female councillors at times in the ensuing 12 months, including publicly on the floor of the council chamber.
The tensions boiled over again this week when Cr Barrie called out a culture of "bullying" and resigned as branch vice-president on Sunday.
Her move followed a complaint to party headquarters alleging she had temporarily changed her address from Mt Hutton in Lake Macquarie to Newcastle in the lead-up to the 2017 and 2021 council elections.
The Newcastle Herald has been told the allegation is false, and Cr Barrie told this newspaper last weekend that she had "nothing to hide".
"The person who is circulating this bulls--t is wasting everybody's time," she said.
Cr Barrie said she and other female Liberal members had been under constant attack from within their party.
"Two councillors, a president and vice-president of the branch have been under fire since we were elected onto council and since we rolled the past executive and became office bearers," she said.
"I'm sick of the bullying, the harassment and personal attacks."
Sydney's Daily Telegraph reported this week that the Libs' ward-one candidate at the 2021 Newcastle council election, Blake Keating, had written to state director Chris Stone calling for the Newcastle SEC to be dissolved.
Any such move would leave Wallsend as the sole branch in the Liberals' Newcastle Local Government Conference.
Mr Keating's leaked letter says the Newcastle branch is "dysfunctional and constantly brings the [NSW] division into disrepute".
The letter refers to alleged racist comments directed by a Newcastle branch member at a state executive member, including statutory declarations alleging slurs such as "Middle-Eastern f---wit" were used, and other allegations two branch members made harassing and abusive phone calls to a young Liberal.
The Newcastle Herald has been told more than 80 per cent of Newcastle branch members who attended a recent meeting voted to expel Mr Keating from the branch.
Mr Keating's letter to Mr Stone alleges branch officers ignored advice from the party secretariat that the expulsion motion was invalid due to insufficient notice.
The renewed turf war in Newcastle is an unwelcome and potentially harmful distraction for a party bookies rate a clear $2.70 outsider to form government next year.
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