http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/dem-david-paterson-helped-trump-momentum-article-1.2724111?cid=bitlyby Kenneth Lovett
July 25, 2016
After the downfall last year of disgraced former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Paterson, who at the time was Gov. Cuomo’s hand-picked state Democratic party chairman, worked with Cox to set the April 19 presidential primary date that put the state in the national spotlight for three straight weeks.
With no other primaries around that time, Trump and many of the other Republican candidates crisscrossed the state, with the billionaire developer holding major rallies upstate and on Long Island. He wound up winning the state with more than 60% of the vote, which boosted his momentum nationally.
As a result, the New York Republican delegation for the first time in memory had prime seating at the convention, right in front of the podium. It was the New York delegation that began the booing of Ted Cruz when he failed to endorse Trump during his convention speech.
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