Candidates get NY cheers and jeers

ALBANY -- John Kasich was knocked for eating pizza with a fork. Ted Cruz was booed in the Bronx. Hillary Clinton took multiple swipes to correctly use a MetroCard. Bernie Sanders thought tokens were still used on the subways.

And Donald Trump, the Manhattan billionaire, hasn't even held a rally in the city yet.

Welcome to New York, presidential candidates, where gaffes are seized upon with front-page headlines and their every move is under a spotlight.

"It’s different than what happens in other states," said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic strategist in New York City. "New York is the media capital of the world, and anything you do here becomes national news. So if you look like a fool, you’re going to be a national fool."

The attention has offered opportunities and pitfalls for each of them in advance of Tuesday's critical primaries. And it's also been a fight over who is the true New Yorker.

"New York is a tough place to come into. It’s its own world and it has its own rules, and it has multi-demographic roots, and as you cross from one group to another, it’s a different set of rules," said George Arzt, a Democratic political consultant and former spokesman for the late Mayor Ed Koch.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the debate has been good for the state.

"In New York, we make people earn it. We always do,” Cuomo, who is backing Clinton, said Thursday on MSNBC.

NY State of Mind

New York has 291 Democrat delegates at stake, including superdelegates, and 95 Republican delegates, making the state a top prize for each of the candidates.

And since New York's vote tally is divvied up proportionally by its 27 congressional districts, it's put every part of the state in play.

So Trump has been looking outside New York to shore up votes as polls show him with a huge lead: He's visited Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester, Rome, Long Island, and Albany. He's headed to Plattsburgh on Friday and Poughkeepsie in Sunday.

Sanders and Clinton have been crisscrossing the state as polls show Clinton, the Chappaqua, Westchester County resident, with a lead that ranges between 10 and 13 percentage points.

On Wednesday, a Sanders rally brought about 27,000 people to Washington Square Park in lower Manhattan as he looks to close the gap with Clinton.

Even a close loss would help build his delegate count heading into other large states, such as Pennsylvania and California, experts said. And Sanders is doing it, in part, by highlighting his Brooklyn roots: His visited the apartment where he grew up and touts his New York upbringing in ads.

"Bernie Sanders is trying to 'out New York her' by using rhetoric that hasn’t been used in New York in a long time," Sheinkopf said. "He’s exciting the labor movement, he’s exciting young people, and he’s exciting people who have been left out."

He added, "If he gets within 10 (percentage points), she’s going to have a lot of explaining to do, and the Republicans are going to be dancing in the streets."

NY Values

Cruz's "New York values" comment about Trump at a January debate has been a rallying cry for his opponents.

"When it comes to New York values, other candidates do not like us," Trump says in a radio ad. And Thursday, his campaign started selling "New York Values" T-shirts.

On Comedy Central's "The Nightly Show" Wednesday night, Sanders said, "The truth is New York values are American values. There is no difference."

Then he dropped the microphone.

Cruz, who will visit Rochester and Binghamton on Friday, has sought to explain his remarks, but he's a distant third in polls behind Trump and Kasich in New York.

He said New York City's liberal policies are damaging the state, and in a new ad, he turns his scorn toward the city's liberal mayor, Bill de Blasio.

"He's got a lot of nerve," a narrator says. "De Blasio's socialist policies are tearing this city apart."

Loving NY

As for Kasich, he was mocked in Queens last week when he took his first few bites of pizza with a fork. He later ate a large slice with his hands celebrity news program "Extra" days later.

"I love New York. I'd like to talk about it all day," Kasich said Thursday on "The Capitol Pressroom," a public-radio show in Albany.

"I'd move here just for the food," the Ohio governor added.

For Clinton, she's also played up her New York roots as the state's U.S. senator from 2001 through 2008.

“The people of New York took a chance on me when I was running for the Senate back in 2000," Clinton said in Rochester last week. "It was the greatest honor I could imagine to serve this state for eight years and to have a chance to learn so much and to meet so many extraordinary people from all walks of life.”

Real NYers

But she's also dealt with controversy in New York. On Saturday, she appeared on stage with de Blasio at the Inner Circle Show in Manhattan and teased him about his late endorsement.

“Sorry, Hillary, I was running on C.P. time,” de Blasio joked about the racially insensitive term, “colored people time.”

"Careful politician time," Clinton responded.

De Blasio said it was a joke, and Clinton later said, "Well, look, it was Mayor de Blasio's skit. He has addressed it."

Trump on Thursday said Clinton isn't really from New York.

"Her home state should be Arkansas," Trump said Thursday on 1300-AM (WGDJ). "But if she loses New York, I think that would be a devastating blow."

For the candidates to understand the state's regional differences is key, said David Catalfamo, a Republican consultant and spokesman for former Gov. George Pataki, the last Republican to win statewide -- in 2002.

"Whether it’s upstate, the suburbs or the outer boroughs, you’re in for a whole different experience," he said.