Gov. Kathy Hochul signs bill to make it easier for parties to remove stealth candidates from the ballot

ALBANY — Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed a bill that would make it easier for the Working Families Party to boot stealth candidates from the ballot — such as Maria Delgado, who played spoiler in the recent narrow outcome in the race for Huntington Town supervisor.

The new law is deep in the weeds of election-law technicalities. But the net effect is that if a party’s central leadership determines someone running for its ballot line is a spoiler looking to steal votes and doesn’t really represent the party’s values, it now will be easier to remove the candidate.

It’s an issue that has come into play specifically regarding the Working Families Party and contests in Huntington and the Hudson Valley.

In Huntington, Democrat-endorsed Cooper Macco ran in a June WFP primary in the Huntington supervisor’s race but lost to Maria Delgado — a candidate unknown to party leaders. In November, Macco lost to incumbent Republican Ed Smyth by 602 votes while Delgado garnered 1,195.

WFP officials have cried foul, saying Delgado was a fake candidate whose presence in the primary and November elections was meant to take away votes from Macco, whom they endorsed. Republicans have said they had no role in Delgado’s campaign. However, Newsday has reported a Huntington Town employee and fire commissioner gathered Delgado petitions to get her in the race.

In 2024 in the Hudson Valley, the WFP said about 200 people suddenly enrolled as members in the 17th Congressional District — a swing district key to control of the House of Representatives, held by Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, of Pearl River — and worked to garner a primary victory for unknown candidate Anthony Frascone over Mondaire Jones, a Democrat who was the WFP’s preferred choice.

WFP leaders had no ability to remove Delgado from the ballot because it doesn’t have local county committees, which, by previous law, must take the first step toward removing rogue candidates it thinks don’t really represent party values.

WFP is the lone one among the state’s four officially recognized parties — Democratic, Republican, Conservative — that doesn’t have county committees and local chairs.

The new law would change the requirement and allow a party’s central committee to try to remove a candidate. WFP officials didn't immediately return calls to comment.

Hochul called the new law a "common-sense fix."

"Gov. Hochul signed this common-sense fix to make sure the election process works as intended, even where there isn’t a county committee in place," Gordon Tepper, a Hochul aide, told Newsday. "It keeps the process fair, transparent and focused on protecting voters."

The issue also arises because New York remains one of two states with "fusion voting" where candidates can appear on multiple ballot lines on Election Day and have their totals aggregated. That’s how we get, say, a Democrat running in a WFP primary or a Republican running in a Conservative primary.

The practice was widely used in the early 20th century but is now severely limited. Critics have said it leaves the ballot too susceptible to gamesmanship and corruption.

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy