NEW YORK – Hillary Clinton's campaign is moving rapidly to set up the infrastructure she'll need for the general election, a process that will unfold mostly behind the scenes over the next seven weeks as the final Democratic primary votes are cast.

Clinton's overwhelming victory Tuesday in New York — and Donald Trump's domination in the state's Republican contest — add to the campaign's imperative to start looking beyond the primary race to get ready for one of the most unpredictable general elections in modern history.

"In terms of a tactical, mechanical matter, we are preparing for a general election," said Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri.

The campaign is at a stage where senior staff members are zeroing on the contest against the eventual Republican nominee, whether Trump or someone else. That means determining the size of paid and volunteer staff in battleground states, and setting voter registration and turnout targets. In addition, the campaign needs to coordinate early- and absentee-voting drives to ensure Clinton's voters show up at the polls. Campaign manager Robby Mook declined to outline specific steps underway but said, "There's a dozen or more states that we've got to get ramped up in. This stuff just takes time."

The Clinton campaign was, from its start, built for the general election. She and her team, though, have stepped carefully to keep from alienating primary rival Sen. Bernie Sanders and his supporters by appearing dismissive of his candidacy and to avoid the overconfidence the led them to underestimate then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2008. Even though Sanders hasn't been as formidable an opponent as Obama, he's mounted a serious challenge for the nomination and the campaign, in Clinton's words, doesn't want to "count any chickens before they hatch."

Privately there's always been a recognition that preparing for Nov. 8, 2016, wasn't just an abstraction or a possibility but an eventuality. Mook was hired not just to manage a staff of hundreds moving from state to state but to lead an army of thousands across the country.

The next big contests come on April 26, when Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware and Rhode Island all hold primaries. On the heels of Clinton's decisive victory in New York, a sweep of those states would make it nearly impossible for Sanders to overcome her lead in delegates needed to secure the Democratic nomination.

In her victory speech in Manhattan Tuesday night, Clinton signaled that she's already turning to the general election, saying that as far as the nomination race she's "in the home stretch and victory is in sight." Sanders only got a mention by way of an appeal to his supporters, while Trump and his main Republican competitor, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, came in for extended criticism.

"We're going to go up against some powerful forces that will do, say, and spend whatever it takes to stop us," Clinton warned.

The New York vote "was make-or-break" for Sanders, said Joe Trippi, a Democratic consultant who advised numerous presidential campaigns. "On the 26th, that's going to start slamming the door on him."

Among the first tasks for Clinton will be hiring. The campaign has less than 1,000 staff members spread around the country. By comparison, Obama had about 4,000 full-time paid campaign staff for his 2012 re-election campaign.