The next Liberal member for Goldstein must be ministerial material but must also be someone the local party members personally know.
Trade Minister Andrew Robb's decision to retire at the election has opened up one of the Victorian Liberal Party's most sought-after seats, but after two outsiders won the past two preselections there is strong mood for the local branches to have a say in who gets the gig.
Goldstein is one of the largest Liberal branches in the state. More than 500 members are expected to be able to vote, and many of them have strong views that a local, someone the membership knows well, should be elected.
So far, two high profile candidates linked to the seat don't live too far from the Goldstein electorate: Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson and Georgina Downer, the daughter of former Howard Minister Alexander Downer.
Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson addresses the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra on Wednesday 18 February 2015. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
Local Liberals understood to be considering a tilt include former state MP Elizabeth Miller, Bayside Mayor Felicity Frederico and Marcus Bastiaan.
Mr Bastiaan is seen as a key player because he is electorate chairman. Sources say he has a good grasp of votes in the area and he has been touted as candidate. If he does not run, his support may help get someone else over the line.
Given Goldstein is a Liberal stronghold – Mr Robb holds it with an 11 per cent margin – there is an expectation that the next MP will be ministerial material, or even a future leadership candidate.
Georgina Downer during one of her appearances on The Bolt Report.
Ms Downer has backing from Turnbull minister Josh Frydenberg.
But as the state preselection for Kew showed, local branch members will not always follow the wishes of senior figures.
Despite the backing of Premier Denis Napthine and a suite of senior liberal figures, state health minister Mary Wooldridge was defeated by local former mayor Tim Smith in her tilt for the safe state seat of Kew.
Ms Downer's backers concede that this was a problem for Ms Downer in Goldstein, a seat where she had done no work in up until Mr Robb's retirement; instead her ambitions had been centred on Kevin Andrews' seat of Menzies.
Mr Wilson has not officially confirmed his candidacy yet, and to nominate he would have to re-join the Liberal Party and quit or take a leave of absence from his $330,000-plus a year job as Human Rights Commissioner.
It would be politically difficult to return to that post should he lose the contest.
And while the party has been pushing to get more women there is not a groundswell of prominent Liberal women getting in behind Ms Downer.
Some even have privately described her as "an outsider" and "a lightweight".