After a number of controversial interventions and a heated electoral campaign, Liberal candidate Kate Ashmor is aiming to take over the marginal seat of Macnamara from Labor, serving the community as a mum and proud Jew.

At a candidate forum last month Ms Ashmor said her religious identity is an important part of her candidacy .

Ms Ashmor also criticised Josh Burns, her Labor opponent, saying that he is not proud to be Jewish because his campaign office does not have a mezuzah, a religious Jewish parchment.

More than half of the Victorian Jewish population resides in Glen Eira, one of the main suburbs in Macnamara, according to the report of Jewish population of Victoria in 2011.

Her religious identity has been on public display several times, supporting the Jewish community against anti-Semitism and engaged in many Israel-related agendas.

Ms Ashmor also stressed the importance of her motherhood in serving her community.

She has made the point that a lack of children leads to a lack of empathy, describing the former Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard as “barren” in a letter to the Australian Financial Review in 2007.

“Good leaders need not be parents, but childless leaders invariably lack one of the most important qualities of leadership: empathy,” Ms Ashmor said.

She is a local born and grown up in the electorate. She studied arts and law at Monash University and has run a legal service business in Caulfield.

Ms Ashmor has worked for the  City of Glen Eira for three years, been on the board of Caulfield Park Bendingo Bank since 2013, and is engaged in Australian Women Lawyers and many other non-profit organisations, according to her office.

The Junction asked Ms Ashmor to comment on her letter to the 2007 Australian Financial Review regarding former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, but she did not respond.