A CASHED-UP Tony Abbott plans to launch a marathon 79-day election campaign from mid-year with the Coalition targeting 43 Labor-held seats - including Kate Ellis's prized electorate of Adelaide.

Buoyed by a strong response from business, which kicked in $500,000 for a Liberal Party fundraiser last week, the Coalition is building a sizeable war chest for a raid on Labor's heartland.

Senior Opposition sources claim a swag of Government-held seats, with a margin of 10 per cent or less, will be "aggressively" targeted before the September 14 poll - double the number of seats placed on the Coalition's 2010 "hit list".

Liberal strategists are planning to bankroll campaigns in electorates that were previously considered "safe" Labor, including Adelaide, which Ms Ellis, the Minister for Employment Participation, has held since 2004.

She won 57.69 per cent of the two-party preferred vote in 2010 but Liberal strategists believe Adelaide and Hindmarsh - held by Steve Georganas with a 5.7 per cent margin - are "gettable".

Others include Speaker Anna Burke's Melbourne seat of Chisholm, Labor veteran Daryl Melham's seat of Banks and Treasurer Wayne Swan in Lilley.

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Labor polled strongly in SA in 2010, helped by solid support for PM Julia Gillard, who grew up in Adelaide after migrating from Wales.

Some of Australia's best known corporate figures are spending up to $10,000 to have dinner with Mr Abbott and senior Coalition MPs.

"We have cash coming in through the door like there's no tomorrow," a Liberal adviser said.

A shadow minister said: "Everyone wants to be our friend."

Labor hopes to equal the $23 million it spent on the 2010 campaign, and can expect strong backing from the union movement, which is amassing its own war chest, of at least $5 million.

But the Government's recent leadership stoush and the resignation of business-friendly ministers including Simon Crean and Chris Bowen, appears to have damaged Labor's fundraising.

The cost of a fundraising dinner at Melbourne's Sofitel Hotel on April 16 has been cut by two-thirds despite it being advertised as an opportunity to hear the PM outline "key policy priorities". Lobbyists received an email yesterday offering a "special individual ticket" rate of $495, after earlier being told the "non member" price was $1500.