NY Hosts Parade, Primary on Same Day

NEW YORK — Super Tuesday applies to politics and football in New York.

The city will hold the rare distinction of hosting a presidential primary and a ticker-tape parade for the Super Bowl-winning New York Giants on the same day.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that Tuesday was the only practical date for celebrating the Giants' 17-14 upset over the New England Patriots because players were in transit on Monday and would start dispersing "to the four corners of the Earth" on Wednesday. He added that the parade might make primary day even more special.

The event will mark the city's first ticker-tape parade since the Yankees won the World Series in 2000.

The parade will begin at the tip of lower Manhattan in Battery Park and proceed north on Broadway, going past the financial district and the site of the World Trade Center before finishing at City Hall Park. The stretch is known as the "Canyon of Heroes," where ticker-tape parades celebrating everything from Charles Lindbergh's Atlantic flight to sports championships have been held.

The Giants will be showered with some 50 tons of confetti, and Bloomberg will give team officials the key to the city after the parade.

All the while, New Yorkers will be casting their ballots for president. New York and the 23 other Super Tuesday states are holding primaries and caucuses.

A spokeswoman for the city Board of Elections said there are three lower Manhattan polling places along the parade route. She said police would help voters at those sites clear a path through the revelers.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said thousands of extra uniformed and plainclothes officers would be on duty Tuesday. They will line the parade route and will be assigned to all polling places.

In New York's Democratic primary, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has home-field advantage against Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. On the Republican side, Arizona Sen. John McCain is expected to prevail over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

But could the Giants' long-shot win give hope to the underdogs?

Hunter College political scientist Kenneth Sherrill claimed the parade could hurt Obama's turnout because his supporters are disproportionately young and male — the same groups that are likely to celebrate a football win — while Clinton does well with women and older voters.

"The Obama campaign has to be more concerned that the parade will have an impact," he said.

The ticker-tape parade will be the first in New York for the Giants, who won Super Bowls after the 1986 and 1990 seasons and celebrated in New Jersey, where they play.

The decision to hold this year's parade in New York was made jointly by the city and the team.

"I am not going to deny these players the opportunity to have a motorcade through the Canyon of Heroes," team co-owner John Mara said. "There was no way I was going to deny these players and coaches after all they accomplished to have that kind of parade. That's a once in a lifetime thing."

The decision to hold the parade in New York annoyed some politicians in New Jersey, but they will get their celebration later in the day at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

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Associated Press Writer Sara Kugler in New York and Tom Canavan in Chandler, Ariz., contributed to this report.

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