Labor’s back-to-basics campaign strategy paid off

Daniel Andrews and his government have shown that if you deliver services that people want and you build for the future, you win elections, writes Matt Johnston.

Daniel Andrews and his government have shown that if you deliver services that people want and you build for the future, you win elections.

If you fix schools and spend money on public transport, voters might forgive your political sins.

If the early swings towards Labor continue tonight, this will be an emphatic victory for the premier and a crushing blow for Opposition Leader Matthew Guy.

The Andrews Government’s self-inflicted wounds had bled for years, but that never killed its momentum.

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Daniel Andrews has proven if you deliver services that people want, you win elections.

A level crossing removal here, a new road there, and dozens of new schools.

Cranes were in the air from the first State Budget, which borrowed billions to start major projects that Victorians wanted.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy identified that population growth would be a sore spot for the government this term.

It could have been, if Labor wasn’t frantically doing things to address it.

Former Labor premier John Brumby said the coalition’s law and order campaign “demonstrably failed”.

This doesn’t mean it wasn’t a concern for many voters, but as a stand-alone issue it didn’t appear to send them in a rush towards the coalition.

Liberals are already looking around for someone to blame.

The federal leadership debacle didn’t help.

A wobbly campaign structure and a lack of money for basic tools such as advertising because of a spat with a big donor made it even harder for Guy to cut through.

But state Labor MPs know that by focusing on the basics that apolitical voters want, it put the government in a position to win regardless of how strong a Liberal campaign was — or wasn’t.