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Did she or didn’t she?
A new twist in the case of an 83-year-old grandma who tipped the scales in the race for Huntington town supervisor is raising questions about her presence on the Working Families line, The Post has learned.
Maria Delgado told reporters this week that she had no clue she was on the ballot, even as town Democrats cried foul because she siphoned enough votes to hand the tight race to the GOP candidate.
But that was put in doubt Wednesday, when a man at Delgado’s home suggested she knew the score.
“She ran, she lost, and I’m proud of her,” the unidentified man said. “We’re proud of her. No comment.”
Delgado has declined to comment after telling Newsday that she was “flabbergasted” that her name appeared on the ballot, which is credited with giving Republican incumbent Ed Smyth the win against Democrat Cooper Macco in an Election Day nail-biter.
“There’s two options,” New York Working Families Party spokesman Aaron Shapiro said Wednesday. “Either she knew she was running or she lied and there’s fraud.”
The Post reached out to the “witness” who signed off on Delgado’s petition but didn’t immediately hear back.
In addition, Delgago is a registered Democrat despite claiming earlier to be a lifelong Republican.
The revelations infuriated Huntington Democrats, who maintain Delgado was a plant on the ballot meant to split the liberal vote between their party line and the Working Families line.
“Maria Delgado is a shill candidate, and I’m sure she probably doesn’t even realize she’s a candidate,” Suffolk Dem Chairman Rich Schaffer said this week. “What [Republicans] did is meant to siphon votes from the Democratic candidate. It’s gone on over several cycles in Huntington.”
Adding to the intrigue is the fact that the Working Families party had cross-endorsed Macco for the supervisor’s race, but was forced into a primary that gave the nod to Delgado 109-26.
Registration in the Suffolk County Working Families jumped 4% since last year, with 167 new voters signing up with the party, according to state Board of Elections records.
In a scathing statement Wednesday, Huntington GOP Chairman Thomas McNally said the claim that Delgado didn’t know she was on the ballot “is not credible” while defending the outcome of the race.
McNally said the grandmother has been registered with the Working Families Party and has voted in the state since 1984 — including in the Huntington supervisor primary and general election.
“The truth is straightforward: members of the Working Families Party selected their own slate of candidates instead of the Democrats’ preferred choices,” he said. “The Democratic Party ran against them in June — and they lost. What we are seeing now is post-election spin and sour grapes.”
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