CNN and other networks are now declaring former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton the winner of the New York State primary. In the never-ending game of expectations all candidates play, the camp of rival Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has suggested that if Clinton doesn’t win by double digits, it’s not really a significant win. However, since delegates is what it’s all about and getting Big Mo going into the final states a win by Clinton will help her. A defeat in her home state would have been a huge story. This is now a big political story — but not as huge as it would have been if Sanders had pulled off an upset victory.
It also suggests once again how crowd counts at rallies don’t necessarily mean statewide or nationwide victories. We’ve seen this in many elections in stories about many candidates who didn’t win their races.
The size of Clinton’s win will be significant: if she squeaks through to victory, it will give impetus to Sander’s campaign. If it’s by a wide margin questions will then arise once again about Sander’s ability to win in states with large African-American and other minority populations.
Unlike the Trump story, the final media narrative on this race won’t be done until the final numbers come out on how each candidate did, and the demographic breakdowns.
Hillary Clinton won New York’s Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday, recapturing the state that twice elected her U.S. senator.
Clinton had long led in the polls, although Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a Brooklyn native, refused to concede the state without a fight.
Sanders attracted massive crowds across New York. More than 28,300 people turned out to see him in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park on Sunday, according to his campaign, which called it his biggest rally to date. The state has a natural core of supporters for him, with a significant number of strong progressives who turned law professor Zephyr Teachout’s 2014 primary challenge to Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) into a real race.
But Sanders also stumbled when an interview with the New York Daily News editorial board raised questions about his knowledge of certain policy areas and resulted in some brutal coverage.
During last week’s debate in Brooklyn, Sanders struggled to explain his vote to grant legal immunity to gun manufacturers, while Clinton continued to dodge calls to release transcripts of speeches she gave to Wall Street firms.
Clinton waged an aggressive campaign to win New York, built upon connections developed during her eight years as the state’s junior senator. Backed by the governor, she sought to remind voters why they liked her and elected her then.
“We have an advantage in New York because we had Hillary here as our senator. We know how good she is,” Cuomo told volunteers and other supporters at a phone-banking event in Buffalo on Monday. “We know what she brought back to New York and how she helped [the University at Buffalo] and small businesses all across upstate New York and focused on the economy.”
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.