http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/04/16/eyes-new-york-primaries/83142016/All eyes are on New York for Tuesday's primaries
ALBANY, N.Y. — Kimberly Meluziis left her house in northern New York at 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.
Bill Clinton hits campaign trail ahead of N.Y. primary
New York has never had competitive Democratic and Republican primaries in the same year.
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.
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.
“This is the first time that both races are hotly contested, and both are quite significant in the ultimate national outcome.”
Bruce Gyory, a Democratic political consultant in New York
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.
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.
“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.
