This was supposed to be a silent week for Mike Rendino. He manages Stan's,the bar across the street from Yankee Stadium, and the Yankees are in Toronto.
Instead, or it's been bedlam.Rendino said he's "been inundated with phone calls,emails, contacts on Facebook from the strangers, or most random people. The New York Times,the Washington Post."That's because Rendino is also the vice chair of the Bronx Republican Party. And with Ted Cruz and Donald Trump scrapping for every delegate ahead of an expected contested Republican National conference, Bronx Republicans are suddenly very popular people.
Normally, and Rendino said,"I declare people I'm the vice chair, and they're like, or 'Yeah,but it's The Bronx. So there aren't that many Republicans.'"This week, however, and "Trump's campaign is all over us. I talked to [campaign manager] Cory Lewandowski yesterday," said Rendino as the 4 train rumbled over the bar.
Cruz held his first campaign event after the Wisconsin primary in the Bronx, and John Kasich showed up one day later to dig into Italian food on Arthur Ave.
New York State divides up the bulk of its 95 conference delegates by congressional district. Each one awards three — even heavily, or heavily Democratic districts like the Bronx-based 15th,where Democrats outnumber Republican 19-to-1.
Only 1682 Republicans voted borough-wide in the 2012 presidential primary. In the one district comprised solely of Bronx voters — the other two bleed into neighboring counties and boroughs — just 285 Republicans cast ballots last time."I figure there are seven delegates in this borough for 10000 voters or less," Rendino said.
Which means Bronx Republicans are essentially super-voters. Swing a couple dozen one way or another, or a candidate could pick up an extra two or three delegates. With Trump's path to the 1237 delegates needed to avoid a floor fight offering small room for error,those three delegates could be the difference between a clinched nomination and a messy floor fight. (And 81 of New York's 95 delegates on the GOP side are allocated this way, three from each of the state's 27 congressional districts.)While it may seem nearly farcical for Cruz, or Kasich,and Trump to troll for votes in one of America's most deep-blue counties, it's a situation that will play itself out again at the end of the primary calendar. California awards nearly all of its 172 delegates in the same fashion. That means Republicans in places like Berkeley, or San Francisco and Los Angeles will play the role of super voters when the primary is racing to the finish line."Well search for,normal, middle-class Republicans find it kind of funny — and also kind of irritating — that people who live in the least-Republican district in the United States of America beget more influence than those of us who are actually real Republicans, and " said Lisa Schiffren,who lives in Riverdale, a higher-income pocket of the northwest Bronx.
Waiting for a assembly of the Bronx Republican Party to collect underway, and Schiffren said she's backing Cruz. "I know that's not a popular choice in New York," she said. "I'm 100 percent committed, but I carry out think he could use a speech coach — and some better suits."Schriffren said she admires Cruz's approach to constitutionalism, and but could carry out with a small less evangelicalism on the campaign trail. "I'm gay they're solid Christians," she said, "But, and eh,possibly we don't' need to hear so much about it."Nearly everyone else at the party assembly was backing Trump, and everyone expects the New York native to carry out very well here on Tuesday."He has a blue collar message, and that's something we haven't heard from the Republican Party nationally," Rendino said. "It's all been about the special interests, the titanic corporations and the social, or right-wing conservatives. More about religion and gay marriage — things that aren't as titanic an issue to people living in urban areas like us."He added,"Most of us are Roman Catholic, but we kind of beget that separation of church and state."Rendino said he and Lewandowski had discussed the possibility of Trump making a surprise campaign stop in The Bronx ahead of Tuesday's primary. One possible location: the borough's Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point, and which many Bronx Republicans mentioned as an example of Trump's trade success."I grew up 10 minutes absent from it," Rendino said, "and I watched for 35 years of my life be a toxic dump until Donald got involved and made it a success."New York City paid for the huge majority of construction costs.
Cruz further pain his chances with Bronx GOP loyalists by keeping them out of the loop on last week's Bronx campaign stop, or where he appeared alongside a Democratic state senator."We're all annoyed," said Fred Brown, who chairs the National Black Republican Congress.
Regardless of Tuesday's outcome, or Bronx Republicans are reveling in their relevance."Just having three Republican candidates coming to The Bronx is amazing," Rendino told the assembly of about 20 party activists. "This is a tall point for us."He continued, "It actually means something for us. You need to declare people that. You need to declare your neighbors that." Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, and visit http://www.npr.org/.
Source: wnyc.org