{"id":142707,"date":"2016-04-07T13:25:43","date_gmt":"2016-04-07T19:25:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=142707"},"modified":"2016-10-12T13:11:52","modified_gmt":"2016-10-12T19:11:52","slug":"after-wisconsin-win-cruz-confronts-the-northeast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/04\/after-wisconsin-win-cruz-confronts-the-northeast\/","title":{"rendered":"After Wisconsin win, Cruz confronts the Northeast"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_142724\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-142724\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Cruz_in_WI_TT_jpg_800x1000_q100-771x515.jpg\" alt=\"Ted Cruz\" width=\"771\" height=\"515\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Cruz_in_WI_TT_jpg_800x1000_q100-771x515.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Cruz_in_WI_TT_jpg_800x1000_q100-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Cruz_in_WI_TT_jpg_800x1000_q100-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Cruz_in_WI_TT_jpg_800x1000_q100.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Patrick Svitek \/ The Texas Tribune<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. Sen. and presidential candidate Ted Cruz talks to a voter in Wisconsin ahead of that state&#8217;s Tuesday primary on April 3, 2016.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Only hours after <a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/ted-cruz\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ted Cruz<\/a>&#8216;s decisive victory in the Wisconsin primary \u2014 a &#8220;turning point&#8221; in the presidential race, by his account \u2014 he was at a multi-ethnic restaurant in the Bronx, where an unruly scene unfolded as reporters awaited his entrance.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article originally appeared in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2016\/04\/07\/after-wisconsin-rout-cruz-confronts-northeast\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Texas Tribune<\/a>,\u00a0a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>&#8220;Ted Cruz has no business being in the Bronx!&#8221; a protester shouted, expressing disapproval with Cruz&#8217;s skepticism of climate change. &#8220;To receive this right-wing bigot is an insult to the whole community.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cruz wasn&#8217;t in the Badger State anymore. After trouncing frontrunner Donald Trump there, the Texas senator is now staring down a string of primaries in northeastern states that tend to be more moderate and more friendly to his two Republican rivals, billionaire Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">&#8220;Trump is doing well everywhere, but the northeast really is a base unlike any other for him, even aside from his native New York,&#8221; said Patrick Murray, a pollster at Monmouth University in Long Branch, New Jersey. Add in the fact that the typical northeast Republican is &#8220;generally more in line&#8221; with Kasich, Murray said, and that &#8220;pretty much leaves Ted Cruz out in the cold.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">As of Tuesday, Cruz&#8217;s campaign was not saying much about its approach to the six northeastern states that award a total of 267 delegates later this month: New York on April 19, followed on April 26 by Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. In only one of them, Maryland, has Cruz&#8217;s campaign named a state chairman and corresponding leadership team.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Asked Tuesday how Cruz plans to compete in not just New York but also other northeastern states, adviser Jason Miller told reporters not to count out the senator.\u00a0&#8220;I think we&#8217;ll surprise you with the number of places where we&#8217;ll earn delegates,&#8221; Miller said, declining to go further.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Cruz allies in some northeastern states contend that while they may be reliably Democratic in general elections, their Republican primaries sometimes tell a different a story. Case in point: Cruz Maryland chairman Michael Hough, who handily won his seat in the state senate two years ago by challenging an 11-year Republican incumbent from the right.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">&#8220;This group of states I know are supposed to be tough for him, but I think Maryland lines up the best,&#8221; Hough said of Cruz. &#8220;Even though we\u2019re a blue state, Republicans in primaries have a history of electing the conservative candidate.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Cruz immediately headed east after the Wisconsin primary, in which he beat Trump by 13 points. In a fiery statement responding to the outcome, Trump&#8217;s campaign said it has &#8220;<span class=\"s1\">total confidence that Mr. Trump will go on to win in New York, where he holds a substantial lead in all the polls, and beyond.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Launching two days of campaigning in the Empire State, Cruz told reporters in the Bronx that he is not worried about his disadvantage in the state, which was confirmed by a Monmouth poll released Wednesday morning that showed him trailing Trump by 35 points. Cruz also defended his use of the term &#8220;New York values&#8221; against Trump, rejecting the idea it would be a detriment to winning votes in the Empire State.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The people of New York know exactly what those values are,&#8221; he said, tying them to Trump&#8217;s donations to New York Democrats over the years. &#8220;If you want to know what liberal Democratic values are, follow Donald Trump&#8217;s checkbook.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At a homecoming rally Wednesday evening on Long Island, Trump was joined by more than half of the Republican county chairmen in New York, a show of home-state force that his campaign said was part of the &#8220;most powerful presidential campaign organization in the state.&#8221;\u00a0Addressing supporters, Trump repeatedly attacked Cruz as his thousands-strong crowd chanted the billionaire&#8217;s nickname for the senator: &#8220;Lyin&#8217; Ted.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">&#8220;Do you\u00a0remember during the debate when he started lecturing me about &#8216;New York values&#8217; like we\u2019re no good?&#8221; Trump asked, recalling how he countered Cruz&#8217;s jab with recollections of Empire State unity on 9\/11. &#8220;Folks, I think you can forget about him.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Cruz&#8217;s campaign has promised not to forfeit New York just because it&#8217;s Trump&#8217;s home state, suggesting it will focus on certain congressional districts.\u00a0David Storobin, a former New York state senator who supports Cruz, suggested Cruz stands a chance of doing well in predominantly Jewish congressional districts, where he could see his assiduous outreach to the pro-Israel community pay off.<\/p>\n<p>Trump will not be Cruz&#8217;s only obstacle in the northeast. There is also Kasich, the only other Republican candidate left in the race.<\/p>\n<p>As results were about to come in Tuesday night, Kasich&#8217;s campaign released a memo billing the governor as Trump&#8217;s top competition after Wisconsin, noting its internal data &#8220;shows Gov. Kasich running a close second to Trump throughout the eastern seaboard and leading in many critical congressional districts.&#8221; The bottom line, according to Kasich chief strategist John Weaver: If Republicans want to deny Trump the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination, they are better off voting for Kasich in the northeast than they are for Cruz.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">&#8220;The people in this part of the country just identify with Kasich&#8217;s style of governing more than Cruz&#8217;s style of governing,&#8221; said Gary Sasse, Kasich&#8217;s New England policy adviser and Rhode Island co-chair. Cruz, Sasse added, &#8220;hasn&#8217;t got a lot of friends in Washington until Trump came on the scene.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Cruz&#8217;s campaign continues to barely conceal its disdain for Kasich, whose presence in the race could complicate Cruz&#8217;s hopes to pick off delegates in states such as New York. In the Empire State, a candidate must receive 20 percent of the vote to be eligible for delegates at the congressional district level, which make up most of the state&#8217;s 95 delegates up for grabs on April 19.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019m assuming he\u2019s auditioning to be Donald Trump\u2019s vice president,&#8221; Miller said of Kasich. &#8220;I\u2019m sure Dennis Rodman and Omarosa and Gary Busey are gonna be real distressed to learn they have competition. That\u2019s really all that it can be. A rational person can\u2019t look at the John Kasich candidacy and have any understanding of why he\u2019s continuing in this race unless he\u2019s trying to help Donald Trump.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Yet the Ohio governor appears to be getting a jump on Cruz in laying down a marker in some northeastern states. Kasich is scheduled to stump Friday in Connecticut, where Cruz has yet to hold a campaign event. And Kasich has made multiple stops across Pennsylvania, where Cruz traveled for the first time Friday as a presidential candidate.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The battle in Pennsylvania is going to matter,&#8221; Cruz said at a gathering of conservative activists in the Harrisburg area, calling the state a &#8220;<span class=\"il\">bellwether<\/span>.&#8221; &#8220;It&#8217;s going to make a difference.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a decisive win over Donald Trump in Wisconsin, U.S. Sen Ted Cruz is now staring down a string of GOP presidential primaries in northeastern states that tend to be more moderate and friendlier to his two Republican rivals, billionaire Donald Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[708,3307,226,116],"class_list":["post-142707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2016-election","tag-donald-trump","tag-presidential-race","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}