Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp and Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery are the only two Hunter Labor representatives to show their hand in the party's looming NSW leadership contest, publicly backing Chris Minns.
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Mr Minns and former leader Michael Daley are expected to put their names forward when nominations open on Friday after Jodi McKay quit the role six days ago.
"If there is a ballot for the leadership of the NSW state parliamentary Labor Party, then I will be supporting Chris Minns," Ms Hornery told the Newcastle Herald on Thursday.
"This is about restoring confidence in Labor.
"Chris has a positive attitude and is hardworking, and that is what the party and our NSW community desperately needs."
Mr Crakanthorp told the Newcastle Herald that he would also back Mr Minns.
"I have confidence in Chris taking NSW Labor forward," he said.
"I believe he has the fresh ideas and the fresh vision that our state needs."
Under party rules, the leadership contest will go to a ballot of rank-and-file members and the Labor caucus if both men nominate.
One Labor source said Mr Daley could withdraw from the race after some horse-trading with Mr Minns.
Another Labor figure said Mr Minns appeared to have a significant numbers advantage in caucus, meaning Mr Daley would have to win the lion's share of the rank-and-file ballot to prevail.
I have confidence in Chris taking NSW Labor forward. I believe he has the fresh ideas and the fresh vision that our state needs.
- Tim Crakanthorp
The source said many in the party wanted to avoid a protracted, divisive and expensive leadership ballot which could detract from federal Labor's messaging in the lead-up to a national election.
"The rivals travel round the state kicking the s--- out of each other, then when it's over we have to act like we're unified," the source said.
Mr Daley beat Mr Minns in a leadership vote in 2018.
Ms McKay beat Mr Minns after Labor's 2019 election defeat, winning the caucus vote 29-21.
Port Stephens MP Kate Washington, Charlestown MP Jodie Harrison, Member for Cessnock Clayton Barr, Maitland's Jenny Aitchison and Swansea MP Yasmin Catley were all noncommittal on Thursday about who they would support in the event of a leadership ballot.
"Nominations are not yet open. Until I know for sure who the candidates are, determining a position would be premature," Ms Harrison said.
Ms Washington, the shadow environment minister, was contemplating a leadership tilt in 2019 had Ms McKay not run.
She was livid last week about Ms McKay's resignation, blaming "foul forces" and "treachery" in caucus for white-anting her friend and political ally.
Ms McKay said during her resignation speech that some in the party had "never accepted" her win over Mr Minns in 2019.
Mr Minns, the 41-year-old MP for Kogarah, quit the Labor frontbench on Wednesday last week after a staffer for Ms Catley, the former deputy leader, distributed a dirt file on him to the media.
The staffer was sacked the same afternoon, and both Ms McKay and Ms Catley denied knowing about the dossier.
Shadow treasury spokesman Walt Secord, a Minns supporter, had quit shadow cabinet a day earlier.
Ms Catley also resigned as deputy leader and the Labor spokeswoman for rural and regional jobs and building.
Mr Daley came under fire five days before leading Labor unsuccessfully to the 2019 election for comments he made a year earlier about "Asians" with PhDs displacing "our young children" in Sydney.
Mr Minns has said this week that he has disagreed with the party's direction for the past two years.
"I believe the leader of the opposition's job is to explain to the people of NSW what we'd do differently, not just what the government's done wrong," he wrote on Facebook on Thursday morning.
Mr Daley says he is the only candidate for the job who can unify the party "so that we can get back to sticking up for the everyday people of NSW who rely on securing a Labor government".
Summer Hill MP Jo Haylen, a former staffer for Julia Gillard and Anthony Albanese, has been tipped as a possible deputy if Mr Minns emerges as leader.