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Race For The Presidency
Winning the 2008 Nomination
By Rhodes Cook |
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New York is in the unique position of having top-tier presidential candidates competing for the nominations of both major parties: Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Rudolph Giuliani. With a Feb. 5 presidential primary, the Empire State is poised to lend significant support to each.
Republicans have parted from their arcane system of directly electing delegates at the congressional district level to a statewide winner-take-all system, an all-or-nothing format that may discourage many of Giuliani's GOP opponents from challenging him on his home turf. As in the rest of the country, New York Democrats will divide their delegates proportionally—a method that may encourage some of Clinton's rivals to campaign for delegates in parts of the state where they believe they might have a chance to win some.
Only registered Democrats can vote in the Democratic primary and registered Republicans in the GOP primary. As of April 2007, there were 11,222,042 registered voters in New York—5,320,943 Democrats, 3,015,385 Republicans, and 2,885,714 independent and third-party voters.
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DEMOCRATS |
REPUBLICANS |
| THE CALENDAR |
Primary Date
(polling hours) |
Feb. 5
(6 a.m.-9 p.m. in New York City plus counties of Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam, and Erie; noon to 9 p.m. in rest of state.) |
Feb. 5
(6 a.m.-9 p.m. in New York City plus counties of Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam, and Erie; noon to 9 p.m. in rest of state.) |
| Filing Deadline |
Dec. 6, 2007 |
Dec. 6, 2007 |
| Filing Procedure |
Democratic candidates must file petitions signed by at least 5,000 registered voters of their party with the state board of elections. Republican candidates can file petitions signed by at least 5,000 registered voters of their party or 5% of enrolled Republicans, whichever is less. Republican candidates may also gain a spot on the primary ballot by qualifying for matching federal funds or being designated as a nationally recognized candidate by Republican commissioners on the state board of elections—in both cases by Dec. 11, 2007. |
| THE DELEGATES |
| Number (% of national total) |
281 (6.4%) |
101 (4.2%) |
| Distribution: |
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By district |
151 (5 or 6 per district) |
87 (3 per district) |
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At-Large |
51 |
11 |
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Pledged PEOs |
30 |
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RNC members |
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3 |
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Superdelegates |
49 |
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| Method of Allocation |
Proportional—15% of vote needed to win a share of the statewide or district delegates. |
Winner-take-all—statewide winner takes all the at-large and district delegates. |
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