Elizabeth Kikkert being ejected from the Canberra Liberals could have been good for the party's leader, Elizabeth Lee. It just needed to happen two years ago.
Instead, well into the election campaign, Ms Lee has to face up to questions about a party that looks more like a rabble than an alternative government.
Mrs Kikkert's expulsion earlier this month looked, at first, to be a clear break. The party issued a strident statement saying it had no tolerance for poor workplace behaviour and non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
Now, after the release of a vanishingly short clip of security camera footage of an incident Ms Lee says played a "significant role" in Mrs Kikkert's disendorsement and Mrs Kikkert says has been edited in a misleading way by a "very dishonest" party, the Liberals have a prime campaign time headache.
It's the Zapruder film of ACT politics, inspiring more conspiracies than it quells.
The party has gone very quiet about the rest of the footage, which both Mrs Kikkert and the media wants released. The public deserves more detail.
Then the Liberals' campaign was further disturbed by revelations their candidate Darren Roberts had posted derogatory and offensive material under a nom de plume on Facebook.
Ms Lee seemed to imply on Thursday she would rather Mr Roberts was not elected as a Liberal to the Assembly. It is unlikely that he will be, but nothing is certain in Hare-Clark. Again, another sign the Liberals are not the smooth-sailing alternative that their opponents will capitalise on to sow doubt among anyone thinking it's time.
Timing really is everything. Perhaps this bloodletting could have done the Liberals a world of good if it had happened much earlier in the term. But all they have done this term is let blood: a deputy leader who resigned, an empty chair elected party president, another deputy leader booted to the backbench. Mischief and backgrounding all the way.
The Liberals needed to show change this term, a move away from their gimmick campaign in 2020 into something more mature in 2024. Instead, it's been a series of distractions and squabbles over just how conservative any of them are and whether this is what Canberra really wants.
The views held by Mrs Kikkert plainly do not represent a broad majority of Canberrans. She is strongly opposed to abortion and, on ABC radio this week, suggested LGBTIQA+ learning materials in schools were about teaching students a "hidden agenda".
Labor's attack ads write themselves. This is precisely what Chief Minister Andrew Barr is referring to when he talks about the "same old conservative Canberra Liberals".
Mrs Kikkert's departure to Family First, Lyle Shelton's political vehicle, could have been a great opportunity for Ms Lee to signal the party was changing, shifting towards a more moderate position: a small-l Liberal alternative that could rearrange the furniture after a long-term Labor-Greens government without the risk they would burn down the house.
But Mrs Kikkert is one person, and her presence on the ballot paper might just split the conservative vote and harm the Liberals. Voters may well decide Ms Lee is a figurehead rather than the leader they wanted at the ship's wheel.
The harsh truth is not everyone in the Canberra Liberals is actually trying to win the election. For reasons of ideological purity and factional warring, some members of the party would rather lose the election than win under the leadership of Ms Lee, a moderate.
Their efforts have made it very difficult indeed for the band of pragmatists who would like to offer an alternative to Labor and the Greens. Instead, they have a fly-by-night, back-of-the-envelope policy development unit, none of the heft that comes with incumbency and a broader party that's too distracted by each other to realise winning government is good, actually.
