NICK AND TIRED: The New York primary is over, now what?

Nick Siano is a sophomore telecommunications and journalism major and writes "Nick and Tired" for the Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper. Write to Nick at ncsiano@bsu.edu.

Polls closed for the New York primary at 9:00 p.m. EST. My phone blew up with projections at 9:01 p.m. Polls in the past week have been pointing to Donald Trump as the GOP winner and Hillary Clinton as the Democratic winner. Trump has maintained a sizeable lead over Ted Cruz and John Kasich, meanwhile Bernie Sanders slowly began closing the gap between him and Clinton. The polls proved to be telling of the state as a whole, with Trump and Clinton walking away with overall wins.

It should be said that New York distributes its delegates differently according to the party. The primary is based on New York’s 27 congressional districts, making it less of a statewide primary and more district-focused.

Read the news article on the primary results here.

Republicans get three delegates per district if they win more than 50 percent of the vote, otherwise the runner-up gets one delegate, so long as they secured 20 percent. If a Republican wins the entire state by more than 50 percent, they also receive 14 additional delegates.

Democrats assign five, six or seven delegates to each district. Another 84 delegates will be allocated to the candidates based on final results.

The results should be no surprise if you take history into account, at least with the Democratic vote. Clinton won 61 of 62 counties in 2008, and has served as a senator from 2001 to 2009. Tompkins County, the sole county she lost, is home to Ithaca College and Cornell University, two very liberal campuses. She lost it yet again this year, as well as other counties that have large college populations, like Albany County and Schenectady County.

New York is examined as five regions: upstate, industrial, suburban, college towns, and the boroughs. Voters in four out of the five regions align with the average Trump Republican. This was just an instance where the polls were wrong, as Trump won every county except New York County, which Kasich won by a narrow margin.

Nick Siano

I’m not one to view polling numbers as law, but I think it was pretty clear going in who would come out victorious in the New York primary. What happens now is far more important.

Given the Republican-controlled Congress, Sanders needs to begin providing firm plans for universal healthcare, free public college and scrutinizing big banks. Otherwise, his campaign has largely been one of exemplary ethics that ultimately fell victim to the human condition.

Clinton needs to expand on her $12 minimum wage plan when the cameras are on her. Frankly, it makes sense that some communities would not be able to support a $15 minimum wage without dealing a blow to its economy. At the April 14 debate, she argued for that amount, while the crowd sided with Sanders. Because on the surface, getting $15 per hour sounds much better than $12, and the two have turned it into a bidding war with very little substance when it comes to higher amounts. Also, if she can just release the transcripts to her Goldman-Sachs speeches, she would cripple a point of attack from Sanders.

Trump needs to maintain a high delegate count to ensure that he won’t face a contested convention. He’s been arguing that the delegate system is rigged, so he’s aiming to keep the convention as short as possible and seize the 1,237 delegates in upcoming states. It’s unclear whether his delegates would shift support in light of a contested convention, but as the frontrunner, he has far more to lose than Cruz or Kasich.

Cruz needs to do something that many of us are both willing and able to do: continue to not be Donald Trump. He has garnered support after other candidates have dropped from the race, making him the more establishment candidate, which could play to his advantage if the GOP race culminates in a contested convention.

Kasich needs his steady trickle of delegates to continue. Fracturing the delegate count and ensuring a contested convention is Kasich’s plan to the nomination. After all, Dwight Eisenhower won 26.3 percent of the popular vote in 1952, and things went pretty well for him thanks to a contested convention.

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