Ra. Bernstein, DIRECTING ELECTORAL APPEALS AWAY FROM THE CENTER - ISSUE POSITION ANDISSUE SALIENCE, Political research quarterly, 48(3), 1995, pp. 479-505
This study analyzes issues used repeatedly by the ANES in studying pre
sidential 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 salienc
e; (2) those issues tend to be most salient to strong proponents, and
of almost no salience to strong opponents; (3) consequently, the optim
al 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.