Directing Electoral Appeals away from the Center: Issue Position and Issue Salience

This study analyzes issues used repeatedly by the ANES in studying presidential races, 1972-88. Three conclusions stand out in the findings: (1) on issues offering concentrated benefits and diffuse or deferred costs, there is a correlation between issue position and issue salience; (2) those issues tend to be most salient to strong proponents, and of almost no salience to strong opponents; (3) consequently, the optimal candidate location on such issues is not at the mean preference of the electorate, but between that preference and the preference of the strong proponents of each issue.