Leaders aim to lock in delegates

Rivals in GOP, Democrat races hope to ride momentum

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a rally at JetSmart Aviation Services on Sunday in Rochester, N.Y.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a rally at JetSmart Aviation Services on Sunday in Rochester, N.Y.

WASHINGTON -- The leading presidential candidates, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, are ramping up efforts to attain challenge-proof delegate majorities against rivals who aren't backing away.

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AP

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders acknowledges the crowd while ordering a hot dog at Nathan’s Famous at Coney Island in the Brooklyn borough of New York on Sunday.

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AP Photo

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at New Greater Bethel Ministries during a campaign stop, Sunday, April, 10, 2016, in New York.

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Democrat & Chronicle via AP

Republican presidential candidate, Ohio Gov. John Kasich speaks at the Town of Greece Community Center gymnasium in Greece, N.Y.

For Trump, who remains well short of the 1,237 delegates he needs to clinch the GOP nod, that means his campaign focuses on developing a delegate-centered strategy akin to the one that his chief rival, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, has pursued for months.

"A more traditional approach is needed, and Donald Trump recognizes that," Paul Manafort, Trump's new delegate chief, said Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press.

Even so, the billionaire later in the day complained that the system is "corrupt" and that "it's not right" that the person who wins the most votes may not be the nominee. If denied the GOP nomination, Trump told a crowd in Rochester, N.Y., "You're going to have a big problem, folks."

For Clinton, who lost Wyoming on Saturday night to Bernie Sanders, it means maintaining her commanding leads among delegates and popular votes no matter how many states Sanders wins -- or how much "momentum" he claims. Key to her drive is a win April 19 in New York, which she represented in the U.S. Senate.

Asked in a CNN interview that aired Sunday whether she's quietly preparing a strategy in the unlikely event of a contested Democratic convention, she replied, "No, I intend to have the number of delegates that are required to be nominated."

But Sanders insisted that his campaign has "a path" to best Clinton in terms of pledged delegates, who are awarded proportionally based on victories in primaries and caucuses.

The Vermont senator added that superdelegates -- party activists and officials who are free to support whichever candidate they choose -- will switch their allegiances from Clinton to his campaign.

"If we continue to do better in general election polls in terms of defeating Trump by a much larger margin than Secretary Clinton, you're going to get a lot of superdelegates who say what's most important is that we don't have a Trump in the White House and we're going to support Bernie Sanders," Sanders said.

After stops in New York City churches, Clinton headed to Baltimore for her first campaign rally in Maryland, where she picked up the endorsement of Democratic U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings.

Maryland, where Clinton is favored, holds its primary on April 26 along with Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

Clinton's campaign is pushing for big wins across the northeast in an effort to gain what it's termed an "all but insurmountable" lead in the delegate race.

With neither front-runner strong enough to claim inevitability, their challengers stuck to the hope that by winning more races and cozying up to delegates, they stand a chance of eventually grabbing their respective party nominations.

For Republican Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, it's about winning enough delegates to keep his rivals from locking up the majority. And that means sowing doubts about the effect that a Trump or Cruz nomination would have on the party. He said there's "great concern" not just about how each would represent the GOP, but about the prospect of a blowout loss up and down the ticket in November.

"We would lose seats all the way from the statehouse to the courthouse" -- meaning races all down the ballot, Kasich said on CBS's Face the Nation.

Sanders, behind Clinton by hundreds of delegates and more than 2.4 million votes, is pointing to statewide wins in seven of the past eight contests. But his victory in Wyoming did nothing to help him in the delegate chase: Both Sanders and Clinton got seven delegates.

On CBS, Sanders noted that the contest has moved from the conservative South -- "Not a stronghold for me" -- into states such as New York, Pennsylvania and California where he expects to do well.

"Our plan right now is to win this thing," Sanders said on Face the Nation. "I think we have a real shot to end up with more delegates."

Also Sunday, Sanders took a dig at Clinton on NBC's Meet the Press, zeroing in on Clinton's acceptance of special-interest money, her support for the Iraq War and her past backing of international trade agreements.

"In many respects, she may have the experience to be president of the United States," Sanders said. "No one can argue that. But in terms of her judgment, something is clearly lacking."

On the Republican side, Trump continued to try to catch up to Cruz's ground operation, which is months ahead and trying to eat into Trump's home state support in conservative pockets of New York. Manafort said the Cruz campaign was using a "scorched earth" approach in which "they don't care about the party. If they don't get what they want, they blow it up."

"The key, especially for uncommitted delegates, is the electability question," Manafort said on NBC.

Clinton has 1,287 delegates based on primaries and caucuses, compared with Sanders' 1,037. When including superdelegates, Clinton has 1,756, or 74 percent of the number needed to clinch the nomination. Sanders has 1,068.

Trump still has a narrow path to nailing down the Republican nomination by the end of the primaries on June 7, but he has little room for error.

He would need to win nearly 60 percent of all the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination before the convention. So far, he's winning about 45 percent.

After Cruz's sweep of Colorado's remaining delegates on Saturday, The Associated Press count stands at Trump 743, Cruz 545, and Kasich 143. Marco Rubio, who suspended his campaign, has 171 delegates.

Information for this article was contributed by Laurie Kellman, Lisa Lerer and Jill Colvin of The Associated Press; and by John Wagner and Abby Phillip of The Washington Post.

A Section on 04/11/2016

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