Your politics briefing: Kasich on LI, a Brooklyn debate, Wisconsin

Presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich held a presidential town hall campaign event at the Paramount Theatre in Huntington on April 4, 2016. Credit: Newsday/ Thomas A. Ferrara
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Kasich’s case Third-place Republican contender John Kasich told a town-hall forum at Hofstra University that he’s staying in the race even if Donald Trump and Ted Cruz don’t like it.
“I’m dropping in, I’m not dropping out,” said Kasich — the first of the remaining presidential contenders from either party to meet with Long Island voters. (Click here for video.)
Trump complains that the Ohioan “is taking my votes.” Kasich is unstung by the accusation. “I know how to fix these things that Trump voters care about,” such as stagnant wages, he said. “I’m gonna get a heckuva lot of his voters.”
Later, a crowd of 3,000 people at The Paramount in Huntington heard Kasich’s rationale on why the GOP convention in July would turn to him if Trump comes up short. “I need to just get better known, and it’s happening now,” he said. Newsday’s Laura Figueroa and Paul LaRocco report.
Clinton mobilizes, wages war Hillary Clinton met privately with more than 100 Democratic lawmakers in Albany Monday afternoon, asking them to help rally support in their districts for her New York primary campaign and “take her over the top.”
Earlier, she joined Gov. Andrew Cuomo in Manhattan at the signing of the bill legislators passed to raise the state minimum wage and went after Trump as no friend of labor.
“In fact, Donald Trump has said wages are too high,” Clinton said. (Trump made those remarks in a debate last November.) When someone in the audience shouted that the former host of “The Apprentice” “should be fired,” Clinton responded, “He’s fired. That’s funny.”
Newsday’s Yancey Roy and Matthew Chayes report.
The take-away Newsday columnist Dan Janison has five suggestions for Hillary Clinton to make sure she doesn’t blow her lead over Bernie Sanders for the April 19 primary here. Among them: Don’t get into a who’s-the-more-genuine-New Yorker food fight against Vermonter Sanders and his legacy Brooklyn accent.
Clinton-Sanders debate set After days of haggling, Clinton and Sanders have agreed to a two-hour debate in Brooklyn on April 14 at 9 p.m. — the same night that all three Republicans in the race are scheduled to attend a GOP gala in Manhattan.
CNN, which will host the debate along with New York City’s cable news station NY1, said it will be held at the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Duggal Greenhouse. CNN’s anchor Wolf Blitzer and chief political correspondent Dana Bash will be on the moderator panel along with NY1 political anchor Errol Louis.
Bill gets it organized Former President Bill Clinton will be at an organizing event 11 a.m. Tuesday at The Vault on Hempstead Turnpike in Elmont. Hillary Clinton is holding a town hall on women’s issues at the Medgar Evers College Gymnasium on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn. Doors open at 1:30 p.m.
Sanders’ persistence and heckling by his supporters has been frustrating both Clintons as of late. On the money front, Sanders outraised Clinton in March, $44 million to $29.5 million.
Cruz: No cheesy apparel On the final campaigning day in Wisconsin before “America’s Dairyland” holds its primary, Cruz politely but firmly declined to don the cheesehead hat made famous by Green Bay Packers fans. “There is an ironclad rule of politics which is no funny hats,” Cruz said as a Wall Street Journal reporter modeled one and tried to goad the candidate into doing likewise.
The verdict of Wisconsin GOP primary voters could either halt Trump’s momentum or heighten doubts about Cruz’s prospects of catching up, Newsday’s Emily Ngo reports. Polls suggest Sanders is headed for a narrow win over Clinton ahead of their New York battle.
Trump hog-called out Iowa’s Sen. Joni Ernst said women who support Trump should still make their displeasure known over his tone and say, “I’m not going to put up with his nonsense.”
Ernst is the conservative Republican who won office in 2014 after running a TV ad boasting of how she “grew up castrating hogs” on a farm.
What else is happening:
- Trump skipped his grandson’s bris to keep campaigning in Wisconsin. Sorry, no rain checks ...
- A Republican convention platform fight over same-sex marriage is brewing ...
- Cruz will attend the Republican Jewish Coaliton’s spring conference in Las Vegas. Trump and Kasich won’t ...
- Janison explains why Democrats in New York face a more complicated presidential primary ballot than Republicans ...
- A Mexican construction worker on a Trump hotel in Vancouver, Canada, proudly hoisted a Mexican flag atop it ...
- A U.S. Supreme Court decision on electoral maps is expected to bolster the influence of Latinos ...
- Cruz hinted that Trump’s personal life hasn’t been that of a choirboy, but he didn’t dish details ...

Things to do now on LI Rock climbing? Indoor beach volleyball? Water parks? Arts and crafts? NewsdayTV's Elisa DiStefano and Newsday deputy lifestyle editor Meghan Giannotta have your look at ways to spend your winter break.

Things to do now on LI Rock climbing? Indoor beach volleyball? Water parks? Arts and crafts? NewsdayTV's Elisa DiStefano and Newsday deputy lifestyle editor Meghan Giannotta have your look at ways to spend your winter break.