Strategist eyes national target after Rann win

THE ability of the likes of Bruce Hawker to deliver a long-term state Labor government victory, when Premier Mike Rann was on the nose and damaged by affair allegations, should send a chill down the spine of every federal Liberal Party strategist.

While Kevin Rudd's popularity isn't what it was, his net satisfaction rating according to Newspoll remains positive and federal Labor is only a first-term government consistently in front on the two-party polling.

If Hawker can deliver South Australian Labor a victory with less than 50 per cent of the two-party vote come election time, imagine what he can do if federal Labor won a majority of the nationwide vote.

Hawker will try to do federally what he did in South Australia: ensure that Labor's marginal seat MPs are returned with local campaigns that outgun and outsmart their opponents.

At the same time, Labor will look to Western Australia, where it only holds four of 15 seats to offset any losses on the east coast.

It will also try to pick up marginal seats around the country where ageing Liberal MPs have said that they will retire at the next election.

Rudd is now in a position to press federal Labor's campaign advantage, as it did the last time Labor was in government at the national level, with Hawker as the key strategist.

Liberals consider Tony Abbott a better outer suburban seat asset than Rudd as he is more appealing with his earthy tones.

But the South Australian Liberals thought that would be the case with Redmond.

It wasn't.

They failed to pick up four out of the five most marginal seats, which were in outer suburban areas, despite a statewide swing of 7 1/2 per cent against Labor.

Rudd only wants to achieve what every first-term government since 1931 has managed to achieve: get re-elected.

We now know he has the campaign skills on the ground, as well as the heavyweights directing the strategy, to ensure that his wish comes true.