In Your Face Brumby's Campaign Mistake

ALP insider George Droutsas hit the nail on the head when he criticized ALPs head office campaign.  Droutsas in the article published in the Age has expressed concern, that many in the ALP hold, that the focus of the campaign was too much on John Brumby,

Even the How-to-vote cards were poorly designed with John Brumby taking up a large proportion of the A4 glossy template with little focus on the local candidate, policies, achievements and even the How-to-vote information were ineffective.  The How-to-vote was the wrong design.  It was hard to hand out and voters had difficulty holding on to it. The How-to-vote should have been much better and a card.

George Droutsas also commented on the fact that the bunting and other aspects of the campaign centered around John Brumby and not the successes that John Brumby and the Party had delivered to Victoria.  It allowed the election to become a referendum on John Brumby with too much focus on the Premier and not enough on the candidates.

Further criticism must also be leveled at the preference negotiations which did not favour the ALP particularly in the upper-house which appeared to have been forgotten completely.

The campaign was also noted for its centralised top down organisational structure which diminished its effectiveness and ability to quickly address local issues.  Instead of delegating authority to campaign organisers based in the regions all the decisions were made centrally,  This had a negative impact as decisions were cumbersome, delayed or often not made in time. Something as simple as getting a letter published and distributed became a burden to implement.