Those scars festered into a sore which indisputably led to the Nationals party losing the Orange electorate for the first time in almost 70 years at the Orange byelection in November 2016.

Whether they will heal in time for next month's state election is a point which won't be clearly known until the poll results are, but it's fair to say there's a large degree of fear among coalition powerbrokers that their brand is on the nose in Orange and other rural electorates.

A point no better demonstrated than by a quick examination of the campaign material of one of the Nationals' headliners.

Member for Bathurst Paul Toole was the minister put in charge of the implementing the council amalgamations policy that went down like a lead balloon across much of the state and, following the government's backflip on a greyhound racing ban, Mr Toole became the minister charged with winning back so many of those lost friendships.

Both were jobs that most MPs would run a mile from, but Mr Toole tackled both with gusto and managed to retain a high personal popularity within his own electorate throughout.

At the same time he has continued to deliver new services and infrastructure for the towns and villages across his electorate, shoring up those important local votes.

So when his election campaign posters went up and his new campaign office was opened, it was glaring to see just how little prominence was given to the Nationals branding. It's blink and you miss it stuff.

Mr Toole will not publicly admit it, of course, but there is no doubt he is quite happy to distance himself from his party wherever possible during this current election campaign.

And, really, who could blame him? In terms of brand, "Paul Toole" is doing much better than "the Nationals" at this stage, and has continued to do so for the past four years because of the number of missteps by the Coalition government.

Other Nationals must be studying what Mr Toole is doing in Bathurst and desperately trying to replicate it for themselves.

Whether adopting that strategy will work in the Orange electorate for Kate Hazelton, a political novice lacking Mr Toole's personal profile, is doubtful.