After meeting Liberal Party volunteer Greg Stenton, who was handing out flyers for Shelley Hancock and Gareth Ward at the Nowra state election pre-polling booth on Tuesday, it was surprising to see him at the official opening of Grant Schultz's office in Nowra on Wednesday.
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Wearing an oversized, "Grant Schultz for Gilmore" shirt, Mr Stenton revealed he wouldn't be doing any of the Liberal Party's bidding at the federal election.
"Look I'm happy to support Shelley and Gareth, they're locals," he said.
"Grant Schultz was our candidate. We were pretty much ignored. If they didn't want people leaving, then they should have listened to grassroots party members.
"Warren's the former Labor boss. No one knows him down here. They can't expect us to put our hands up and volunteer for someone we haven't backed."
Leonie Smith, who resigned immediately from the Liberal Party when she heard Mr Schultz had been snubbed, was among his supporters on Wednesday.
Ms Smith was a state delegate, a branch delegate for the Liberal Party Women's Council and the vice president of the Milton-Ulladulla branch.
"When I read the news on Facebook I thought it was one of those joke articles, like the Betoota Advocate," Ms Smith said.
"I thought, 'There's no way this would happen'.
"What a waste of our time, why did we all travel an hour and a half to vote?
"ScoMo's form was appalling. ScoMo should have done his own research."
Shoalhaven councillors Greg Watson and Patricia White were also among his supporters.
Schultz says he will have influence, if elected
"[Wentworth MP] Kerryn Phelps pretty much sat the government on its backside with her Medivac legislation, that's the kind of power and influence independents have at the moment," Mr Schultz told the South Coast Register and Milton Ulladulla Times.
"Let me tell you, independents have a lot of power, there are many ways we can leverage our influence over government.
"Even if Labor is elected with outright numbers in parliament, Labor wants to win this seat.
"If I win it, Labor will still want to win it. They'll still support this seat, fund this seat if we have an issue where we say, 'Look, we need funding.'"
Mr Schultz wants to act as a whistleblower in parliament.
"Because I'm not bound by a party or a faction, when government doesn't fund [important community projects] the first thing I do, as an independent, is get out and let the electorate know," he said.
