If each of the four electorates has specific issues and quirks, there are unifying themes. Collectively, it is clear the combatants that this election has an entirely different flavour to that of 2010, when three of the MPs were the same and the Greens were giddy in the wake of Adam Bandt's election to the federal Parliament.

In 2010, carbon was very much in the air - we had no tax on that element then - and the ALP, with the exception of the more right-leaning Richardson, sought to match the Greens tree-for-tree, refugee-for-refugee and were brandishing social justice and enivornmental credentials. Labor was the government, but the debates were on green terrain.

This time, both parties have a freeway to oppose - Labor having joined the party more recently in unambiguous opposition on the East-West Link. The campaigns are more prosaic and largely carbon-free, as Labor seeks to make it all about schools, education and jobs. Planning issues - and opposition to high rise - are particularly potent in Brunswick.

Demography favours the Greens, who have riden the gentrification and student wave and have favourable redistributions in Northcote and Melbourne. Tactically, the Labor incumbents are telling the voters that, as a prospective government, they can bring home the bacon, and the minor party can't. The Green counter, as enunicated by Northcote candidate Trent McCarthy, is that if the Greens win, the electorates will become even more contested - and, in turn, receive a better shake from Labor in Spring St. Brunswick challenger, Dr Tim Read, said voters should "vote for the party that best represents your values."

School funding shapes the largest Labor carrot. Garrett has pledged $10m to Brunswick Secondary College, while Richmond MP Richard Wynne is promising a new state secondary school in Tigerland, Richardson is dangling $3m of the $30m that Northcote High School wants for its masterplan. Kanis has promised $10m for Carlton Primary. The Greens, naturally, don't oppose funding these schools.