First came the wrangling and threats of legal action of the central executive’s refusal of Bathurst farmer Paul Blanch’s nomination for the preselection.

Now we have Nationals sniping at each other in the local media over who is supporting who in the race and, most significantly, who has the support of retiring MP John Cobb.

Few people who have closely watched the race so far could take seriously Mr Cobb’s claims yesterday that he was not endorsing Bathurst Agricultural, Horticultural and Pastoral Association president Sam Farraway as his replacement over any candidate.

He may not have uttered Mr Farraway’s name as his preferred candidate, but nor has he had to.

When asked last month who he believed was the best person for the job, Mr Cobb replied: “I think we want somebody who has no baggage, and somebody who is young and has proved themselves in business, and somebody who can do the job for a long time so they can get to really know the electorate and the electorate can really get to know them.”

That sounds like Mr Farraway to us. But so what?

Mr Cobb need not shy away from his support of Mr Farraway because, as he said yesterday, he is perfectly entitled to his own view and he is perfectly entitled to share it.

Mr Cobb has served the Calare Nationals for more than a decade in Canberra and knows better than anyone what the job entails.

He has his own ideas of what personality traits are best suited to the role and just what sort of person would thrive in it.

When the Nationals vote to preselect a candidate on April 30, Mr Cobb will have just one vote, like everyone else, but in the lead-up to the ballot he has every right to do what he can to secure extra votes for the person he believes is best suited to take the job.

That’s not an uneven playing field. That’s democracy.