I've never seen the point of bringing a federal politician into a state election.
I know why political parties do it, but it does muddy the waters as to what are state/federal responsibilities - and again, it places the person (or brand) in front of the policy.
Even moreso, when you have federal politicians summarising state campaigns or outcomes as: "lets send a message to (fed) government; or, "let this be a wake up call to the (fed) government"; or, "it's a vote of confidence in this (fed) government's program"; or, "it was fought on state issues, not a reflection of the (fed) government".
A state election should be fought on areas to which the state has responsibility for as designated by the Constitution. And voters should be continuously reminded of this.
It would certainly take a lot of the noise and fluff out of everyone's campaign.
