Kasich to NY Senate: Stick with me, keep majority
ALBANY - Republican presidential hopeful John Kasich says he's the state Senate Republicans' best hope for maintaining their razor-thin grip on power.
Kasich, the Ohio governor, was scheduled to meet Monday morning with Republicans in the New York State Senate, hoping to gain support for his presidential bid ahead of the state's April 19 primary.
Speaking to reporters beforehand, Kasich revealed part of his pitch: If Donald Trump or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz win the GOP nod, it will hurt the Republican senators' chances at winning in November.
"I will tell you the majority in the New York State Senate will not be a majority with the other two guys being the nominee of the party," Kasich said. "So what we really need to do is get these people, these critics, to get behind me and get their people to drop out so we can actually beat Hillary Clinton."
There are currently 31 Republicans and 31 Democrats in the Senate, with one Democrat sitting with the GOP. A vacant seat on Long Island will be filled the day of the presidential primary.
Polls of New York Republicans show Kasich running second among the GOP candidates, with Donald Trump getting twice the amount of support.
When matched up one-on-one versus Democratic hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, Kasich trails -- but he outperforms Trump and Cruz, according to a Quinnipiac University poll last month of likely voters.
At an Albany rally later in the day, Carl Paladino -- co-chair of Trump's New York campaign -- riled up a crowd of more than 10,000 when he urged them to "throw the bums out, and that includes Albany, too."
"We don't need a governor of Ohio," Paladino said. "We need a real leader, and that's Donald Trump."
Kasich, meanwhile, declined to weigh in on the Senate Republicans' recent vote in favor of a minimum wage increase in New York, saying it still needs to be voted on by "the House." The bill, which was part of the state's new $147 billion budget, has already passed the Senate and Assembly and has been signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
His meeting with the Senate GOP was scheduled to begin around 1 p.m. He met with Assembly Republicans at Albany's Fort Orange Club earlier in the day.