valence issue by steering the election campaign towards a battle over views on position issues and making a stance which is in line with the average voter’s attitude on that particular position issue. There are also other forms of electoral strategies concerning the interaction of valence issues and position issues beyond this specific example. For instance, some candidates may deliberately adopt a position issue that resembles the position issue of an opponent to accentuate their competence with a valence issue, thereby giving this candidate a valence issue advantage. The valence issue reputation of a party is not static, as parties with competence on a particular valence issue can suffer once in power, since when these politicians in government there is a closer scrutiny of the governing party and there are opportunities for governing parties to make errors on valence issues. Additionally, once in government voters have an opportunity to reevaluate their ideas about a parties competence on valence issues based on real performance and therefore vote retrospectively. Examples of valence issues In a study of campaigns for the US Senate, candidates focused upon valence issues in 77% of their advertising. In the United States, valence issues may include campaign finance reform, care of the elderly, crime, daycare, economy, education, inflation, and jobs. To contrast, position issues in the United States include abortion, civil rights, congressional pay, death penalty, drugs, foreign aid, the environment, gun control, healthcare, nuclear proliferation, school prayer, taxes, and term limits. References Political science