For the first time in decades New York, politically, is about to live up to its “make it here, make it anywhere” promise.

The vast state and its huge Jewish community –nearly 2 million, or just under 10 percent of the population — have not figured as crucially in an election since 1976, when President Gerald Ford spent most of the year beating back a challenge from Ronald Reagan among the Republicans and Americans were just getting to know a former peanut farmer named Jimmy Carter.

In 2016, the stakes may be even higher. Forty years ago, victories in New York by Ford and Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson, D-Wash., were not determinative. This time around, the results on April 19 could conceivably change the race.

Continue reading at JTA