New York Primary: Sanders and Clinton battle gets increasingly personal

The two Democratic candidates have until now largely avoided most of the negative campaigning shown by the Republicans

Bernie Sanders spoke in front of at least 28,000 people in Washington Square Park (AP)

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have made a determined push to win over voters in New York ahead of what could be their most important debate of the primary campaign.

Mr Sanders and Ms Clinton are to debate in Brooklyn on Thursday night, four days before the New York primary vote on April 19. An average of polls suggests a 13 point advantage to the former secretary of state, but Mr Sanders is working hard to close the gap.

On Wednesday night, he held an impassioned rally in front of almost 30,000 in New York’s Washington Square park, where he enthused supporters and derided telecommunications giant Verizon as an example of “greedy capitalism”.

Mr Clinton said it was 'good to be back in the Bronx' (AP)

“I take my hat off to CWA [Communication Workers of America]. They are standing up to a greedy corporation that want to cut their healthcare benefits, send decent paid jobs abroad and then propose $25m a year to their CEO,” he said.

“Verizon is just the poster child for what so many of our corporations are doing today.”

Ms Clinton took her campaign uptown to the Bronx, a borough long associated with crime and urban decay, but which has undergone something of a transformation. She said it was “good to be back in the Bronx”, and told her supporters it had been an honour to the senator of New York for eight years.

She contrasted her views with those of the Republican candidates, in particular those of Donald Trump

“We are a borough of immigrants, in a city of immigrants, in a state of immigrants, in a nation of immigrants, and I am proud of that,” she said.

While Mr Trump wanted to build a wall, she added, “I want to build bridges.”

The stakes for both Mr Sanders and Ms Clinton are higher than ever. After taking eight of the last nine nominating contests, Mr Sanders arguably has the better wind behind him.

Were he to win New York and take the largest share of its trove of 247 delegates, the effect would be electrifying. Which is precisely why Ms Clinton cannot let that happen.

The state should be Ms Clinton’s to lose. Unlike Mr Sanders who cut his electoral teeth in the relatively genteel climes of Vermont, she has lots of experience of New York’s especially rough brand of politics. She won the New York primary competing with Barack Obama for the nomination in 2008 and was sent by the state to the US Senate not once but twice.

Polls show the former first lady with an edge of 13 points or so over Mr Sanders. That will be tough for him to overcome, but not necessarily impossible, even though time is starting to run out. Much will depend on a televised debate the pair are to hold in Brooklyn.

The pressure felt by each side since arriving to campaign in New York has ignited some of the sharpest exchanges of the Democratic race so far. Ms Clinton declared her intention to “disqualify” the Vermont senator in the eyes of New York voters; Mr Sanders quickly struck back twice as hard suggesting she already was not qualified to be president.

While he drew some criticism for the suggestion - a candidate with more qualifying experience than Ms Clinton, a former Secretary of State, would be hard to find - Mr Sanders stuck more or less with the theme this week saying his opponent’s “judgement” was “clearly lacking”. He cited, in particular, her support for the Iraq War and her willingness to take money from Wall Street.

But Mr Sanders had an unexpectedly shaking start in New York, notably seeming to stumble during an interview one week ago with The Daily News, the tabloid, when asked for details both on his level of support for Israel and his knowledge of the latest conflict in Gaza and on how he would carry out a campaign promise to break up Wall Street’s biggest banks.

His shakiness on Israel and Palestine could be especially troublesome in New York City with its substantial Jewish community.

“As Mr. Sanders publicly discusses his approach to key US foreign policy priorities, including Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, accuracy and accountability are essential for the voting public, but also for US credibility in the international community,” scolded Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the influential Anti-Defamation League, ADL.

Ms Clinton has assailed Mr Sanders for his uneven record on gun control, which he attributes to his coming from a rural state.

“Most of the guns that are used in crimes and violence and killings in New York come from out of state,” she said on Monday. “The state that has the highest per capita number of those guns that end up committing crimes in New York come from Vermont. So this is not, 'Oh you know, I live in a rural state, we don’t have these problems’”.

Yet, there is plenty of terrain in New York for Mr Sanders to exploit. Few cities in American have a greater concentration of young, liberal, white voters than New York City - and in particular the Brooklyn of today - which is the constituency that has provided the most fuel for his surprise insurgency.

But in far away upstate, he has also been emphasizing his outright opposition to fracking for oil, where Ms Clinton’s position has been more nuanced, as well as his message of income equality in typical rustbelt areas for instance around Rochester and Buffalo.

And he apparently is with New Yorkers when it comes to the best way to approach a slice of pizza.

“I’m for picking it up and eating it,” he told Fox News last week. He failed to mention folding it first, but what he said was surely close enough.