April 19, 2016 New York Primary

Organization:  CLINTON  |  SANDERS                       

OVERVIEW
Both the candidates played up their New York roots, Clinton having represented the state for eight years as a U.S. Senator, and Sanders having grown up in Brooklyn. 

The New York campaign got off to a rough start as Sanders, at a rally at Temple University in Philadelphia on April 6, said that Clinton was "not qualified" because she had taken millions from Wall Street, voted for the Iraq War and supported "disastrous" trade agreements.  Sanders eventually modified his stance to questioning not Clinton's qualifications, but her judgment.  Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign and aliies sought to paint Sanders' interview with New York Daily News ed board (>) as a disaster, saying it showed he was unclear on one of his signature proposals, that of breaking up the big banks.

The candidates plied the state with visits and waged intense ad campaigns over a period of about two weeks.  In addition to roundtables, organizing events, and speeches, Hillary Clinton engaged in several lighter moments on the campaign trail, including dancing at a block party in Washington Heights, playing a game of dominoes at a senior center in East Harlem, and taking a subway ride to make the point that tokens were discontinued in 2003.  Former President Bill Clinton did close to two dozen events in the closing stretch, and numerous other surrogates helped spread the Clinton campaign's message.  In contrast to the many elected officials at the front of Clinton's campaign, the Sanders campaign had more of a grassroots focus, opening some 20 offices around the state.  Sanders held a number of rallies including the biggest rally of his campaign on April 17 at Prospect Park in Brooklyn.  He made a visit to the home of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park, joined striking Verizon workers on a picket line, and visited one of the worst housing projects in New York City.  The candidates also made stops in Upstate. 

The two candidates addressed Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network’s 25th Anniversary National Convention (+).  Six days before the primary, on April 14, they met at the Brooklyn Navy Yard for a debate hosted by CNN.  Their fifth one-on-one debate (and the ninth overall Democratic debate) proved a contentious affair as the candidates clashed on topics ranging from the minimum wage to policy toward Israel (+, >).

Organized labor played an important role in the campaign.  The campaigns highlighted a couple of endorsements by local unions, IBEW Local 3 going for Clinton (+) and TWU Local 100 going for Sanders (+).  On two occasions Sanders addressed members of the CWA who were on strike against Verizon.  One of the major phone banks for Clinton operated out of the UFT Manhattan Borough Office at 52 Broadway.

Both candidates concluded their efforts on April 18, crisscrossing New York City in a frenetic finish.  Clinton finished with a plurality of about 16 points, carrying New York City's five boroughs, the adjacent counties of Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland and Orange as well as Erie County (Buffalo), Monroe County (Rochester) and Onandaga County (Syracuse).  Sanders carried all the remaining counties.  Clinton carried 21 congressional districts to six for Sanders (19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 27).

	Clinton	Sanders	Total
NYC	631,009 (63.32%)	365,488 (36.68%)	996,497
All other	502,971 (52.52%)	454,768 (47.48%)	957,739

The election was not problem-free.  New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer reported that "more than 125,000 voters in Brooklyn were removed from voter rolls and [there were] widespread reports of voters having trouble accessing polling sites and other polling irregularities."  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio cited reports that "voting lists in Brooklyn contain numerous errors, including the purging of entire buildings and blocks of voters from the voting lists." (+)

New York has a closed primary, meaning independents cannot vote in the party primaries; Common Cause New York calls the system a "closed shut primary" because "the deadline to change or declare party enrollment for presidential primary was wildly early: October 9, 2015 (+)."  In remarks to reporters on primary night Sanders said that New York's closed primary system had probably hurt his showing.

The Democratic ballot was a bit different than the Republican ballot in that the names of the candidates for president as well as their congressional district delegates appeared, whereas Republican voters just chose among the candidates.  New Yorkers will have multiple opportunities to vote this year; in addition to the April 19 presidential primary, the federal primary election is on June 28 and state and local primary elections occur on Sept. 15. 

(see: Campaign Activity)

REACTIONS
Bernie 2016 fundraising email
Correct the Record (pro-Clinton)
Democratic National Committee
Republican National Committee

DELEGATES [PDF]
291 delegates and 21 Alternates:
163 District-level Delegates
54 At-large Delegates
30 Pledged Party Leaders and Elected Officials
44 Unpledged Party Leaders and Elected Officials

National delegate allocation:  Clinton 139, Sanders 106.

State Convention:  May 24, 2016.

Delegates