Victorian Community Services Minister Mary Wooldridge has ruled herself out of a preselection battle for the safe seat of Hawthorn.
Nominations for the seat, left vacant by the retirement of former premier Ted Baillieu, close on Tuesday, with the Liberal Party's administrative committee to decide who wins preselection on Thursday.
Ms Wooldridge has not commented publicly but a Liberal Party source says she will not seek preselection.
Earlier this year Premier Denis Napthine backed a plan for Ms Wooldridge to move to the seat of Kew, after her seat of Doncaster was abolished.
But in an embarrassing loss for her and the premier, Ms Wooldridge failed to win the preselection battle.
Ms Wooldridge is set to contest an upper house seat in November, after one of the three Liberal members for the Eastern Metropolitan Region, Jan Kronberg, decided not to recontest her position.
Health Minister David Davis has already ruled out running for Hawthorn in a bid to move to the lower house.
The premier's legal counsel John Pesutto and Institute of Public Affairs executive director John Roskam are reportedly the leading candidates to win preselection.
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