All eyes on New York for primaries
ALBANY — Kimberly Meluziis left her house in northern New York about 6 a.m. Tuesday and made the 60-mile drive to a Bernie Sanders speech near the New York state Capitol.
She got there around 7 a.m. The speech wasn’t until 2 p.m.
“I support Bernie because I’m a black female in America, and it’s hard and it’s tough if we don’t have the same opportunities as everyone,” Meluziis, 21, said. “And he sees that. I’m working two jobs at minimum wage right now. I’m up to my ears in student loans.”
That kind of enthusiasm has spread across the state among both Democrats and Republicans as New Yorkers experience something they are unaccustomed to: attention from presidential candidates, particularly three with New York roots.
New York has never had competitive Democratic and Republican primaries in the same year.
ELECTION 2016 COVERAGE
Not only that: Tuesday’s outcomes in the delegate-rich state will be crucial to how the rest of the primary season across the country plays out.
“This is the first time that both races are hotly contested, and both are quite significant in the ultimate national outcome,” said Bruce Gyory, a Democratic political consultant in Albany.
The state’s diversity and size has been a challenge for the five remaining presidential hopefuls — as has its arcane primary rules.
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Winning the statewide popular vote has its benefits — it’s worth 84 delegates on the Democratic side and up to 14 on the Republican side, depending on the margin of victory.
But simply winning the statewide vote isn’t enough: The majority of the state’s delegates are awarded to the winners in each of New York’s 27 congressional district, allowing non-winning candidates to pick up delegates if they perform well in individual regions of the state.
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Because of that, Republicans and Democrats have been fanning out across the state to win support.
Why? Because a strong showing in the Bronx, for example, generally counts just as much as doing well in Buffalo or Brookhaven.
So the situation has put the state’s regional differences on display: from New York’s hydraulic fracturing ban to the poverty that has plagued upstate cities.
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“What a lot of people are missing is that regionalism has been the fault line in New York politics going back two centuries,” Gyory explained. “And it’s very easy for non-New Yorkers to miss the significance of those regional factors.”
But New Yorkers understand the significance, and they have been flocking to the candidates’ events. The Empire State has seen a boost in voter enrollment and more young people engaged.
The Sanders event in Albany drew such interest that he took to a microphone on the street on a cold, windy day to thank at least 1,000 supporters who couldn’t get into the event.
Airplane hangers on Long Island and in Rochester were packed for Donald Trump events. One rally at an Albany arena drew more than 15,000 supporters.
John Kasich ate Italian sandwiches at a deli in the Bronx; Ted Cruz visited a matzo factory in Brooklyn, while Hillary Clinton rode the subway — although it took her a few swipes of a MetroCard to get on.
Patrick Logan, 56, who is unemployed and lives in Binghamton, is backing Trump because he thinks the businessman would help the state and national economy.
“I guess Trump is the best bet,” he said. “He’s the only one I could see who can help it right now.”
Tale of two states
While New York is home to the largest city in the nation, it also has upstate cities dealing with the same issues as places in the Midwest: high poverty and declines in manufacturing jobs.
Outside the city, the labor force has shrunk by about 200,000 people since 2009, state labor statistics show. In the city, it’s up 282,000.
Judy Parrino, 56, of Carmel, Putnam County, said Kasich, the Ohio governor, comes from a state with similar problems to New York.
“I think he is the only candidate who has the experience and temperament” to be president, she said. “He’s still a dark horse in the sense that he has no path to the nomination. But if it gets to the convention and Trump or Cruz don’t have the 1,237 delegates they need, John Kasich could be a contender at the convention. Right now, he’s a potential spoiler.”
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The race also has a unique quality: Hillary Clinton was New York’s senator from 2001 through 2008. Trump is the Manhattan billionaire who owns property throughout the Hudson Valley, while Sanders is Brooklyn-born and -raised.
They have all been playing up their New York ties in ads and speeches. For Cruz, his “New York values” comment about Trump during a January debate has angered voters and has been an attack line for his foes. He’s running a distant third to Trump, polls showed.
Melissa Woodford, 18, of New City, Rockland County, said she’s helping Cruz, citing his devout Christian faith.
“He is consistent in what he believes in,” she said. “He does not back down.”
Clinton is known by voters not only as the former first lady and secretary of state, but also as senator. That has had benefits and pitfalls: She’s able to promote her record, but she has also faced criticism for what she couldn’t accomplish, most memorably her pledge for 200,000 new upstate jobs.
Jim Hare, 69, of Elmira said he’s supporting Clinton, in part, because she knows the region and is more of a centrist.
“I believe that decisions are made in the center of the political spectrum, and when we have people running on the extremes — and as our country unfortunately becomes a little bit more ideological — decision-making and getting things done becomes more and more difficult,” said Hare, a retired history teacher.
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Clinton has been visiting parts of the state that are much different from when she left as senator in 2009. Outside New York City and its suburbs, the region has lost 31,740 people, or 0.5 percent, since 2010, the Albany-based Empire Center said.
Rochester and Buffalo rank third and fourth, respectively, in the U.S. for poverty, a report in 2014 found. Only Detroit and Cleveland were worse.
New York City gained three out of four new jobs in New York from 2009 to 2014, a report last year from Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli found.
Mark Mitchell, a disabled veteran from the town of Greece , said he supports Trump because “he’s not politically correct.”
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“He knows the corruption that goes on, and I believe that he’s going to fix it. I believe strongly that he’s going to clear house at the VA, which I care a lot about, being a veteran,” Mitchell said.
Issues and polls
Clinton held a double-digit lead against Sanders in New York, polls showed, while Trump was cruising against his GOP foes.
Jennifer Cannizzaro, of Newburgh, Orange County, said Clinton’s experience is the reason she’s voting for her.
“I don’t dislike Sanders, and I think he has some great ideas,” Cannizzaro said. “My concern would be how he would get these ideas done. In many ways, he’s trying to reinvent the wheel.”
With 95 GOP delegates on the line and 291 Democratic delegates, Trump and Clinton are looking to establish further distance from their foes. Sanders, Cruz and Kasich are all hoping to make up ground before the races head to other large states, such as Pennsylvania and California.
Losing New York would be a huge blow to Trump and Clinton. But since New York isn’t a winner-take-all state, there’s opportunities for all of the candidates to pick up some delegates.
The focus on New York has made some voters hopeful for the future.
“There’s a huge disconnect between the people and our political system,” said Jamie Morrill, 25, of Rochester, who works with HIV-positive patients and is backing Sanders.
There’s also skepticism in a state with among the worst corruption in the nation. Both legislative leaders at the state Capitol were convicted last year.
Matt Sartain, 25, of Victor, Ontario County, said Clinton “will say anything to get elected” and Donald Trump is a “yahoo.”
Kasich is what “we need in a president,” said Sartain. “He’s experienced and has a message that is not hateful.”
In addition to the New York economy, the environment and income inequality have been key issues.
New York is one of a few states with a ban on hydraulic fracturing and recently installed a $15 minimum wage by 2018 in New York City and in subsequent years across the state.
The issues have shown a divide, particular between Clinton and Sanders. Clinton has supported a $12 national wage, but said she applauds states that adopt a $15 wage. Sanders knocked her for backing a $12 national wage, saying it should be $15 everywhere.
As for fracking, Sanders criticized Clinton for supporting a state’s right to drill for natural gas. Clinton said the drilling should only be allowed with the proper regulatory controls; Sanders wants a national ban.
Bonny Eberly, who is retired and from Binghamton, said the national economy and fracking are her two top issues.
While her favorite candidate is Sanders, she expressed doubt that he would be electable.
“It’s very difficult to enact real change because it’s not one person — it takes the entire Congress and everyone pulling together,” Eberly said. “That is one of my biggest frustrations with national politics is all the infighting.”
In Ithaca, the liberal enclave that’s home to Cornell University, it’s Sanders who has garnered most of the city’s interest, though he’s yet to visit there.
Yard signs for Bernie Sanders are a common sight throughout the city and last week, a campaign office boasting more than 100 canvassers opened on the city’s west end. The street’s name: Clinton Street.
Kris Hodges, a 58-year-old market researcher and Ithaca resident volunteering for Sanders’ campaign, said the issue of special interests influencing the opinions of politicians played a major role in her stance.
“Until we get money out of politics, nothing is going to happen,” Hodges said.
Includes reporting by Gannett New York: The Journal News, Ithaca Journal, Elmira Star-Gazette, Press & Sun-Bulletin, Democrat and Chronicle and Poughkeepsie Journal.
THE CANDIDATES
Hillary Clinton
Age: 68.
Party: Democrat.
Family: Married to former President Bill Clinton, has a daughter, Chelsea Clinton; the presidential hopeful is also grandmother.
Experience: U.S. first lady under Bill Clinton, 1993-2001; U.S. senator from New York, 2001-09; secretary of State, 2009-13.
Fun fact: Clinton makes it a priority to march every year in the New Castle Memorial Day Parade in Chappaqua, Westchester County.
Ted Cruz
Age: 45.
Party: Republican.
Family: Married to Heidi Cruz, has two daughters, Catherine and Caroline Cruz.
Experience: Solicitor general of Texas, 2003-08; U.S. senator from Texas since 2013.
Fun fact: Although he grew up and serves in Texas, Cruz has ties to New York through his wife, Heidi, who worked for several New York-based investment banks.
John Kasich
Age: 63
Party: Republican
Family: Married to Karen Kasich, has twin daughters, Emma and Reese Kasich.
Experience: State senator in Ohio, 1979-83; U.S. representative from Ohio, 1983-2001; chairman of the House Budget Committee, 1995-2001; governor of Ohio since 2011.
Fun fact: Kasich has published three books, two of which made The New York Times bestseller list.
Bernie Sanders
Age: 74.
Party: Democrat.
Family: Married to Jane Sanders, has one son, Levi Sanders, and three stepchildren; Sanders is also a grandfather.
Experience: Mayor of Burlington, Vermont 1981-89; U.S. representative from Vermont, 1991-2007; U.S. senator from Vermont since 2007.
Fun fact: Sanders, who was born in Brooklyn, attended the 1963 civil-rights march in Washington, D.C., where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream Speech.”
Donald Trump
Age: 69.
Party: Republican.
Family: Married to Melania Trump, has five children, including Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, Tiffany Trump and Barron Trump; Trump is also a grandfather.
Experience: Chairman and president of The Trump Organization; former host of television reality show The Apprentice.
Fun fact: Trump has had many successful and unsuccessful business ventures, including a golf course in Putnam and Westchester County that didn’t pan out and is now a New York state park.