Lynton Crosby

The election saw the smallest two-party-preferred margin win since 1949 estimates, on 49.02 percent.

Sir Lynton Keith Crosby (born 23 August 1956) is an Australian political strategist who has managed election campaigns for right-of-centre parties in several countries.

Crosby has been described as a "master of the dark political arts", "the Wizard of Oz", and "the Australian Karl Rove".

Crosby started his career in 1976 as a market analyst with Golden Fleece Petroleum.

He then moved into politics as a research assistant in 1978 for Senator Baden Teague.

In 1980, Crosby became executive assistant to Harold Allison, then Minister of Education and Aboriginal Affairs.

At the 1982 South Australian election, Crosby unsuccessfully ran for the Liberals in the House of Assembly seat of Norwood.

Suffering a 9.2 percent two-party swing compared to the statewide swing of 5.9 percent, he later joked that he "turned a marginal Labor seat into a safe Labor seat after campaigning there."

Between 1986 and 1991, Crosby held a number of corporate affairs positions in the Australian private sector.

In 1991, Crosby became state director for the Queensland division of the Liberal Party of Australia, and in 1994 the party's deputy federal director.

Crosby became executive assistant to Martin Cameron in 1992, then Leader of the Opposition in the South Australian Legislative Council.

He oversaw the party's successful campaigns at the 1996, 1998, 2001, and 2004 federal elections, which made the Howard government Australia's second-longest serving federal government.

Crosby served as campaign director for the party at the 1996, 1998, 2001, and 2004 federal elections.

After graduating from the University of Adelaide, Crosby first became involved in politics with the Liberal Party of Australia, eventually being appointed federal director of the party in 1997.

He served under federal director Andrew Robb, until replacing him as federal director of the Liberal Party in May 1997.

In 1998, the government won with marginal seats (swing seats) targeted by Crosby.

In 2002, he was called "one of the most powerful and influential figures in the nation" by The Age.

In 2002, Crosby left his formal position in the party to establish a consulting firm, the Crosby Textor Group.

In 2002, Crosby established an election consulting firm, the Crosby Textor Group (now C|T Group), with an associate, Mark Textor.

As a result, he left his position with the Liberal Party.

Crosby first ventured into overseas politics at the 2005 United Kingdom general election, where he managed the Conservative Party's unsuccessful campaign.

Crosby managed the Conservative Party's 2005 United Kingdom general election campaign, but was unable to help leader Michael Howard defeat the incumbent Prime Minister Tony Blair.

During Crosby's time as campaign manager, the Conservative used attention grabbing slogans such as "It's Not Racist to Impose Limits on Immigration" and "How Would You Feel if a Bloke on Early Release Attacked Your Daughter?"

Crosby was also involved in setting up CT Financial, an investor relations and financial communications specialist consultancy, in 2006.

He has since also run Conservative campaigns for the 2008 and 2012 London mayoral elections, as well as the 2015 general election, all of which resulted in victories for the party.

Crosby was also appointed to run Conservative Boris Johnson's successful 2008 London mayoral election campaign, at a cost to the party of £140,000 for four months of work.

At the 2009 European Parliament elections, Crosby acted as a consultant for Libertas, a pan-European party opposed to the Treaty of Lisbon.

Crosby was born in Kadina, South Australia, and grew up in a rural area of the state, where his father Dudley Crosby worked as a cereal farmer and an arts and crafts shop-owner.

He studied economics at the University of Adelaide.

In March 2009, it was announced that Crosby would direct the Europe-wide Libertas campaign for the June 2009 European Parliament elections.

Despite running 600 candidates, the movement only managed to get one MEP elected, and folded shortly after.

In November 2012, Crosby sued Mike Kelly, an Australian parliamentary secretary for defence, for libel for alleging on Twitter that Crosby had used push polling.

In July 2013, following the government's rejection of a plan to remove branding from cigarette packets, British Prime Minister David Cameron was urged by Liberal Democrat members of the governing coalition to sack Crosby as his chief election strategist because of Crosby's connection to the tobacco industry.

Liberal Democrat MP Paul Burstow was quoted as saying: "Lynton Crosby cannot remain at the heart of government while he is also serving the interests of the tobacco industry. If he does not go, the Prime Minister should sack him."

In July 2013, it was reported in The Guardian and elsewhere that Crosby Textor, the company which he co-founded (which is known as CTF Partners in the UK) had advised private healthcare providers on how to exploit perceived "failings" in the National Health Service in 2010.

Crosby issued The Guardian with a legal challenge over their reporting.

In 2014, it was revealed that having been hired in 2012 by Philip Morris International, maker of Marlboro cigarettes, Crosby lobbied Lord Marland, then parliamentary undersecretary for intellectual property and a former Conservative party treasurer, to oppose the introduction of plain packaging on cigarettes.

The issue resurfaced in mainstream news sources a few days before the 2015 UK general election.

His campaign was not successful for the 2016 London mayoral election (which was won by the Labour candidate, Sadiq Khan) and the 2017 general election in which the Conservatives remained the largest party but lost 13 seats and their parliamentary majority.

Outside of Australia and the UK, Crosby has also served as an advisor for parties in Canada, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka.