New York deserves a Democratic debate — stop dodging, Hillary

For once, the hard-left Working Families Party is right: Hillary Clinton should debate Bernie Sanders in New York before the April 19 primary.

Sanders wants another face-off, but Camp Clinton says Bernie has to make nice first. Clinton aide Joel Benenson claims Sanders is “running a negative campaign . . . If he goes back to the kind of tone he said he was going to set early on . . . then we’ll talk about debates.”

Ha! Sanders has never even mentioned her in an ad. Face to face, the worst he does is note her vast Wall Street fund-raising and demand she release the transcripts of her $225,000-a-pop Goldman Sachs speeches.

In fact, the whole Democratic debate schedule was set up to serve Clinton: far fewer than in the past, all scheduled at off-peak hours to limit the TV audience.

Yet in the runup to New Hampshire, with Sanders well ahead, Clinton’s people desperately sought an extra debate. Sanders agreed — in exchange for her promise to do three more, one of them in April. Will she renege?

For the first time in decades, New York’s presidential primary actually matters. Moreover, it’s Clinton’s home state — well, for the past 15 years, anyway.

It’s also Bernie’s native state, though Clinton’s people now talk snidely about his “campaigning like a Brooklynite.” (Uh, where exactly is Hillary headquarters?)

Plus, the race is shifting yet again: Bernie has won six of the last seven contests, including last weekend’s three-state sweep with 70-plus percent of the vote. He’s on track to romp Tuesday in Wisconsin, too.

She’s still the favorite in New York — but the gap’s tightening in the Quinnipiac poll.

So another debate is called for. Unless there’s something about New York that makes Hillary nervous?