Four years after Gladys Berejiklian declared the 2019 NSW election result "hinges in part on Port Stephens", the coastal electorate is still waiting for a Liberal candidate to contest the seat in 17 days' time.
The NSW Electoral Commission closes candidate nominations for the March 25 election at midday on Wednesday.
Party sources said the Liberals would nominate a candidate in time, but that had not happened when the Newcastle Herald went to print on Tuesday evening.
The Herald asked Liberal headquarters if the party had locked in a candidate but did not receive a response.
The Liberals' tardiness in nominating someone to contest the marginal electorate is a far cry from the build-up to the 2019 election, when Jaimie Abbott mounted a spirited campaign on behalf of the conservatives.
Ms Berejiklian made four visits to the seat during the campaign and a procession of senior cabinet colleagues, including police minister Troy Grant and now-treasurer Matt Kean, also joined Ms Abbott on the hustings.
"If Jaimie Abbott is not elected in Port Stephens, I don't think we will be in government," Ms Berejiklian told the Port Stephens Examiner in February that year. "The election hinges in part on Port Stephens."
Labor's Kate Washington holds Port Stephens with a 5.8-point margin.
The Liberals' Craig Baumann won the seat off Labor in 2007 and held it in 2011 before he moved to the crossbench when the Independent Commission Against Corruption found he had acted with the intention of evading election funding laws relating to political donations from property developers.
The Liberals also have yet to name candidates in Lake Macquarie and Charlestown but expect to do so on Wednesday.
Candidates already in the field for Port Stephens include Ms Washington, the Greens' Jordan Jensen, One Nation's Mark Watson, Michelle Buckmaster of the Animal Justice Party, and Informed Medical Options hopeful Angela Ketas.
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