Make your subjects respect you, and the plotters will be stripped of their power.

"€œOne of the most efficacious remedies that a prince can have against conspiracies is not to be hated and despised by the people, for he who conspires against a prince always expects to please them by his removal," he wrote in The Prince.

For Labor and Andrew Barr, the conspirators were piling up well before the campaign proper had even begun: greyhound trainers angry at a looming ban, bar and nightclub owners fighting liquor reforms, lawyers deploring anti-consorting laws, the anti-light-rail campaigners, opponents of the Manuka Oval redevelopment, and a slew of independents and minor parties worried about government integrity.

But chief among them, and one of the most damaging, has been ClubsACT, the peak body for clubs, furious at what it sees as Labor threatening its cash cow, gambling revenue, by allowing a redeveloped Canberra Casino to have pokies.

They began a vigorous and sustained campaign many months ago, using their enormous reach to tell 200,000 members Labor was out to "€œdestroy your club".

The attack has adorned drinks coasters, posters, and in-club banners, while ClubsACT has mailed its members, aired ads at Raiders game, and used social media.

The fans are flamed by the Liberals and Canberra Community Voters, a minor party with an eclectic mix of candidates, headed by Richard Farmer, a paid lobbyist who has worked for the clubs and tobacco.

The party also includes one candidate, Beth Gooch, who is the marketing manager for the Vikings Group clubs.

Some within the sector think the ClubsACT campaign is overblown, and that 200 pokies in the casino will have little impact on suburban clubs.

Their rally last week attracted only a minority of club members, despite free buses being offered from clubs, a lucky door prize, and free food.

Yet, Labor'€™s response to months of bitter attacks has left much to be desired.

At the eleventh hour, on the eve of ClubsACT'€™s rally, Labor sought to play a cunning hand to split the campaign in two.

It offered a 50 per cent tax rebate on pokie revenue to smaller clubs only, a reform underpinned by the perplexing logic that doing so would help reduce their reliance on said revenue.

It came far too late. The damage of ClubsACT's campaign has already been done, and was unlikely to be abated by a tax break that will only help eight of Canberra'€™s 49 clubs.

But worse still, it was a measure that failed to heed Machiavelli'€™s political maxim.

It will not, by any standard, win the respect of the people, many of whom despise the impact problem gambling has on the community, and are likely to perceive a tax break on pokie revenue as a decidedly negative step.

It allows clubs to increasingly and indefinitely rely on a morally dubious revenue source. A 2014 Australian National University study, which is disputed by the clubs, showed up to 28 per cent of gambling losses in the ACT were made by 1.5 per cent of the population who identified as problem or "moderate risk" gamblers.

But the campaign, now nearing the end of its third week, will turn on many more issues than the clubs and pokies.

It is said that two elements are crucial to a successful ACT election campaign; consistent messaging, and solid work on the ground, door-knocking, letter-boxing, and running stalls.

Labor appears dominant at least in the consistency of its messaging.

The thematic delivery of its funding and policy announcements, also being used by the Greens, has given structure to the campaign, and a degree of control over the weekly agenda.

It has allowed Labor to steer at least some of the conversation away from light rail to the more fertile ground of health and education. Successive, focused announcements allow it to get at least some of its messaging through to a largely unengaged public.

Where they have followed Liberals' announcements, such as the Canberra Hospital upgrade, they have made commitments so massive that they demand attention.

The Liberals' policy announcements feel more disjointed, jumping between mental health, public housing, roads, arts, and tourism in the space of a week, for example.

That may change in the final weeks, as the stream of major funding announcements from both sides slows to a drip, creating a vacuum for either to fill.

The major defining difference between the parties remains light rail.

With two weeks remaining, the issue will come to the fore again. The way Labor handles the attack in the pointy end of the campaign could just determine their re-election prospects.