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As Victoria's election race tightens, these are some of the seats the leaders have been visiting

In the final few weeks of campaigning, the two men vying to be Victoria's premier have been zig-zagging across the state.

Where they've visited could offer some clues into how they think things might be shaping up in the final stretch.

We've tallied up the media-invited press conferences held by Opposition Leader Matthew Guy and Labor Premier Daniel Andrews since November 2.

As this map shows, Mr Andrews has held six press conferences in the seat of Melbourne — although that's likely due to the central location than targeted campaigning in the seat.

There are three seats Mr Andrews has visited twice during this period — Northcote, Eureka and Geelong.

In Northcote, sitting Labor MP Kat Theophanous is battling to hold onto the inner-Melbourne seat as the Greens mount a fierce challenge with candidate Campbell Gomes.

The party holds the seat on a 1.7 per cent margin — and it's been held by the Greens before, when now-senator Lidia Thorpe won it in a by-election in 2017.

The other two seats, Eureka and Geelong, are in the major regional hubs of Ballarat and Geelong — seats where Labor has been dominant since 1999.

Mr Andrews has also visited Labor-held seats in Melbourne's outer suburbs, including St Albans, Mill Park, Bayswater (a redistributed seat), Dandenong and Narre Warren South as well as Footscray in the inner west.

Other election appearances where Mr Andrews has invited the media include Caulfield and Ovens Valley.

On the other side of politics, Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has visited Labor-held Bentleigh in Melbourne's inner east three times.

He's also made a media trip to Kew, where the party is hoping fresh candidate Jess Wilson can defeat 'teal' challenger Sophie Torney.

But he's made no media-invited appearances in nearby Hawthorn, which high-profile Liberal figure John Pesutto is hoping to reclaim from Labor's John Kennedy — a situation complicated by 'teal' candidate Melissa Lowe.

Mr Guy has made two trips to Werribee, which has historically been a safe Labor seat but is facing a challenge from independents.

Outside Melbourne, both Mr Guy and Mr Andrews have visited Morwell, where they've shared their competing visions for the future of Latrobe Valley communities in a clean-energy economy.

Mr Guy has also made a trip to Shepparton, which the Liberal Party and Nationals are battling to wrest from independent Suzanna Sheed.

And the Liberal leader has been in Benambra, which is held by his party but is facing a challenge from an independent candidate.

Back in Melbourne, Mr Guy has spent time in several seats in Melbourne's south-east, such as Nepean, which the party is hoping to win back from Labor with former professional tennis player Sam Groth.

He's also held press conferences in Hastings, Frankston, Narre Warren South, Mordialloc, Oakleigh, Prahran, Sunbury, Warrandyte, Yan Yean and Melbourne.

Mr Guy has held one media event in the nearby seat of Narracanbut the election there will be held at a later date, after the death of the Nationals candidate.

Political leaders 'minimise contact' in public as culture shifts

While a leader's visit to a seat is traditionally about connecting with the community and endorsing their candidate, those on the buses have observed a carefully staged set of media events — in part due to concerns around security.

Former associate editor of The Age, Denis Muller, said there were a raft of factors that had led political leaders towards more tightly choreographed outings.

"I think certainly Scott Morrison's experience after the bushfires, particularly in Cobargo where people refused to shake his hand and yelled obscenities at him, was a lesson to all politicians," Dr Muller said.

"Another factor is social media, everybody's phone is now a sound recorder and a camera and a video camera.

"And so I think they're scared that any possibilities for social media accidents are a problem, so they try to minimise contact."

Mr Andrews and Mr Guy participated in one public debate — which was not broadcast on free-to-air TV.

Dr Muller said the current political culture had moved a long way from the times of Gough Whitlam and Robert Menzies, who would visit a seat, endorse a candidate, and hold a town hall meeting.

"[They] were famous for this, because they had the wit to engage with these hecklers and often, to the great amusement of the whole crowd, and put them in their place," he said.

"All of that's gone … it's partly because of course there are many more effective ways of communicating with large numbers of people now than there ever were.

"But also, I think it's this concern that if you go off message or if you expose yourself to real people, you never know what might happen."

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