The current NSW Liberal Party president, Trent Zimmerman is the front runner to replace the former Treasurer, Joe Hockey, in the seat of North Sydney, with the moderate faction claiming a strong hold on the numbers in local branches.
Mr Hockey signalled his intention to leave politics, after deciding not to serve in the new cabinet, unveiled Sunday. No date has been set for a byelection yet but insiders were not ruling out a factional battle over the preselection, with predictions the Right faction would resist Mr Zimmerman taking the plum federal seat.
Mr Zimmerman is a long time mover and shaker in the so called 'wet' faction of the Liberals both in state executive and behind the scenes. He has worked for Mr Hockey as a staffer and is currently a senior policy adviser at the lobby group, Tourism and Transport Forum (TTF). He is openly gay and is the current state president of the party.
Other potential moderate candidates are Suresh Manickam, a former staffer to Senator Marise Payne and current chief executive of industry group, the National Electrical and Communications Association.
On the right, John Ruddock, who is backed by hard right MLC, David Clark, is seen as a possible candidate. Tim James, a staff member for NSW minister, Anthony Roberts was also mentioned through he is believed to be eying the state seat, currently held by Jillian Skinner.
While the seat of North Sydney is ostensibly a blue ribbon Liberal seat, encompassing the suburbs of Cremorne, North Sydney, Kirribilli, Artarmon, Hunters Hill and Lane Cove has shown that it can deliver some unexpected results. It has elected Independents to state and federal seats in the past and for several decades, the municipality of North Sydney has had independent mayors. Ted Mack was the independent state member for North Shore for 12 years before contesting the federal seat of North Sydney in 1990 and winning two terms at the expense of the Liberal Party.
The seat has also seen a strong rise in its Green vote over the years with the Greens securing 15 per cent of the primary vote, just behind Labor at 20 per cent in 2013. Mr Hockey cruised to victory with 61 per cent of the primary vote and 66 per cent two party preferred.
Genia McCaffery, the long time independent mayor of North Sydney ruled out a tilt at Canberra on Sunday.
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