Election 2015: It's not just the economy...it's the campaign teams, stupid

The Carville team also set the template for the image of a group of young, smart, hungry, successful campaigners, based in a team HQ, or "war room", and fuelled by late-night pizza, slaving away to get their candidate into pole position.

Unsurprisingly, the approach was noted on this side of the Atlantic. Indeed, Carville was hired by Tony Blair for Labour's 2001 General Election triumph.

But parties have always had their own characters when it comes to Westminster elections - think Labour's Peter Mandelson. From attempts to set the tone of the debate to key questions over policy, pledges, style and spin, campaign teams can often be the crucial element in a victory.

And with polls suggesting a close result and potential for a hung parliament, every party's team

matters.

Here we look at the main characters - and how they hope to ensure victory come May 8.

Tories

David Cameron has put his faith in Lynton Crosby to be the man to help him finally achieve the goal which has so far eluded him - an outright General Election victory.

The Australian big beast, known as the "wizard of Oz", helped steer John Howard to the top job as Prime Minister of Australia. But his track record in UK General Elections is less than stellar.

In 2005 Mr Crosby ran then Tory leader Michael Howard's campaign, generally seen as a flop amid notorious allegations of "dog whistling" over immigration. Since then Mr Crosby

has bounced back, helping Boris Johnson to two London mayoralty victories.

Known as a tough disciplinarian,

he ordered the Tories to "get the barnacles off the boat" and focus on key messages in the race for Downing Street. One of those is on the economy, where Chancellor George Osborne has the key role.

He has a difficult ship to steer, to say on the one hand that the Conservatives have healed the UK economy, but that on the other they need another five years in office to finish the job.

Jim Messina, Barack Obama's 2012 campaign manager, is also feeding into the campaign for the US. His appointment was seen as a coup for the Tories when they hired him.

On the ground Grant Shapps, the party chairman, is focusing on key constituencies where he estimates that just 11,000 votes, in less than 70 seats, could make or break a Tory victory.

Within those constituencies voters can expect personalised contacts, while the national message - or air war - will be pummelling home the party's key lines, including, effectively, "it's the economy, stupid".

Candidates will be kept on message with daily emails on key issues, as well as, in this digital election, encouraged to post pictures of themselves with voters on social media.

North of the Border, the party faces much more of an uphill challenge where, after leader Ruth Davidson said she wanted to send a Praetorian Guard to Westminster, the Tories could still struggle to take a single extra seat, or even hold the one it currently has.

But Scottish chairman Richard Keen QC has made the party set-up look more focused and professional, while it has become sharper at getting its message across since Eddie Barnes, a thoughtful former Scotland on Sunday journalist, became Ms Davidson's director of communications.

Labour

Douglas Alexander, Labour's election chief, hopes that he can pull off a difficult challenge, ensuring his party spends only one term in opposition.

An experienced operator, he is also facing an election fight in his own backyard, with a challenge from the SNP.

He is aided by Lucy Powell, Mr Miliband's former chief of staff, a Manchester MP, only elected in the last parliament, who was made vice-chair of the election in November, and put in day-to-day charge.

David Axelrod, another former Obama adviser, was seen as Labour's answer to the Tories hiring Jim Messina. However, since his appointment there has been controversy about his role and questions from within the party about what it is getting for his reported £300,000 salary.

In Scotland, John McTernan has been credited with helping Jim Murphy's energetic start as Scottish leader. While it faces a huge uphill battle in Scotland, Labour strategists believe the polls suggest voters focusing on who will enter Downing Street, Ed Miliband or David Cameron, could help it do well in May.

In the run-up to polling day the party has also significantly stepped up the number of paid campaigners it has working in constituencies. While before the last General Election in 2010 they totalled just 50, in preparation for May's vote it has grown to 300.

Labour claim it is the biggest field staff organisation "ever been mobilised in a UK election". The party aims to hold four million conversations with voters across the UK in the run-up polling day.

Mr Alexander has argued that the most precious commodity with voters is a "trusted conversation."

There will also be a heavy concentration, especially south of the Border, on the NHS. While it is behind on the economy, Labour knows that it has a significant lead over the Tories on the health service and other issues.

As one Labour MP put it: "If the vote was decided on fairness, we'd win hands down".

SNP

The SNP are hoping to deliver dozens of MPs to Westminster and potentially hold the balance of power in the event of a hung parliament.

And, of course, one of those would-be MPs is a rather famous face, that of former First Minister Alex Salmond.

Insiders say the former party leader will have much to offer Westminster after May, not least in his experience of running minority governments while at Holyrood. But they also point to his decision to stand as symbolic.

SNP strategists say it shows that they are taking Westminster elections very seriously indeed.

The party's campaign director is Angus Robertson, the Moray MP, who played the same role in the hugely successful Scottish Holyrood campaign in 2011. Another MP, Stewart Hosie, was elected as the party's deputy leader late last year and is drawing up the SNP's General Election manifesto.

The team includes Peter Murrell, the party's chief executive, and husband to one Nicola Sturgeon.

Regarded as one of the most skilled party officials of any party in the UK, he has presided over a huge surge in membership which the party now has to ensure counts on the ground.

Also intimately involved on the strategic communications side is Kevin Pringle, whose job is ensuring that the party's message and language is right. Insiders admit there will be surprises on the night - and that these will includes shocks for the SNP as well as for Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

The party is extremely keen to mobilise 18 to 30 year olds to vote, and to back the SNP, at the election. To this end it is attempting to harness the power of social media, as well as more traditional forms of canvassing and campaigning.

A recent poll suggested that the numbers who vote in May could fall back to around 2010 levels, much below what they were for the referendum, which political observers suggest could impact the SNP more than other parties.

LibDems

What do you do when you are in the battle of your political life? You call on a former Royal Marine Commando.

The ex-LibDem leader Paddy Ashdown is back and leading the charge as the party's campaign director for 2015. And he is not doing the job quietly.

Last month he caused controversy when he used a rather rude word to describe Alex Salmond's new biography. But the LibDems know how hard this election will be. The party is still being hammered in the opinion polls, five years after its decision to enter Coalition government with the Conservatives.

Labour are mounting a "decapitation" strategy to try to oust Nick Clegg from his seat in Sheffield Hallam. The LibDems have decided to bed in, and fight each of the almost 60 seats they hold as a kind of mini by-election. Insiders admit that many candidates, including in Scotland, are going to lose their deposits, as resources and manpower are all shifted to the small number of holdable seats.

But the party hopes that, on the night, it will not matter, so long as it can hold on to enough constituencies, and also, possibly, hold the balance of power in a hung parliament.

Its team includes Ryan Coetzee, a South African strategist criticised for costing the taxpayer cash when he was a special adviser to Clegg, but now working from the party offices.

David Laws, the former Treasury Chief Secretary forced to resign over his expenses, is in charge of pulling the manifesto together.

In Scotland the party's campaign director is the talented Adam Stachura, while Natalie Coupar has proved a capable and popular press officer for the party at Holyrood.

The LibDems are hoping that by talking to as many voters as possible it can still convince them to vote LibDem. With that aim, it recently knocked on its one millionth door.

Party sources say that they are starting to win over women to their message, which includes an extra two weeks of paternity leave for new fathers.

But there are also fears that the LibDems could be left without a single female MP in May, with the seven that they have facing tough electoral fights.

Some LibDem sources insist the result will not be as bad as it is feared, and certainly far from the wipeout predicted by many, but expect to hear a lot from the party faithful in your neighbourhood if you currently have a LibDem MP.