Abstract
This study assesses candidate issue agendas and intercandidate agenda setting during the 2004 Democratic primary campaign. Candidate press releases, downloaded from official Web sites of Wesley Clark (n = 232), Howard Dean (n = 328), John Edwards (n = 512), and John Kerry (n = 459), are used to construct candidate issue agendas for each month spanning October 2003 through February 2004. This study investigates prominent issues among candidate agendas, agenda consistency, and intercandidate agenda-setting effects. Despite consistent issue agendas among the leading primary candidates, intercandidate agenda-setting effects were evidenced in each month of the primary campaign.
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