Cut them loose, gov

The open scandal known as New York’s Independence Party is in the cross hairs of Gov. Cuomo’s anti-corruption commission — exactly where it belongs. The panel’s dossier on an organization that poses as the state’s fastest-growing political group puts the onus on the governor to cut all ties when he runs for reelection next year. Once abandoned by Cuomo, this bunch of illegitimate power-grabbers would face well-deserved extinction.

Amid much other muck, the commission focused on clandestine financial transactions — first reported by the Daily News — between the Independence Party and the state Senate Republican Campaign Committee in 2012.

This, mind you, was not a first offense. The party has specialized in serving as a hidden conduit for large sums of political cash — among other shady practices.

To get the full picture, Cuomo’s investigators would do well to read a 2012 series of Daily News editorials, exposing the fraud that enables a small group of political operatives to wield outsized and undeserved power.

The editorials documented that many, if not most, of the party’s 475,000 purported members stumbled into it by accident, mistakenly checking a box for the IndependENCE Party when they meant to register as independENT voters with no party affiliation at all.

Here in the city, cultlike devotees of the late Fred Newman — known for his radical politics, kooky psychotherapy theories and anti-Semitic rhetoric — exploit this phantom army to control ballot lines for mayor, controller and public advocate. Votes cast on their line provided the margin of victory for two of Mayor Bloomberg’s three victories. He repaid the favor with donations of private funds and with public support for programs operated by Newman’s followers.

Worse, the Newmanites maintain their power in part through fraud — by stuffing key committees with people who have no clue they’re members of the party, let alone that they’ve been elected to offices in it.

The faction that controls the statewide Independence Party is hardly more trustworthy. Chairman Frank Mackay and top deputy Thomas Connolly have flouted campaign finance laws to launder money for other parties and politicians. Cuomo’s Commission to Investigate Public Corruption documented the 2012 scheme.

There, the Republican committee transferred more than $350,000 to the Independence Party, which promptly spent the money on ads attacking Democratic Senate candidates. The money flowed between the parties’ so-called “housekeeping” accounts — which are allowed to raise unlimited amounts with minimal disclosure, but are barred from spending those funds directly on campaigns.

Yet that’s exactly what both parties were doing, as emails obtained by the commission confirm.

“Is this ours? Don’t know anything about it,” Connolly wrote to a Senate GOP counterpart, referencing an ad that showed its Democratic target as a vampire.

“It’s ours, but they would like it to go through IDP,” the Republican replied, using an abbreviation for the Independence Party.

“Absolutely ok to go with us,” Connolly wrote back.

The exchange is convincing evidence of campaign finance violations. The commission must thoroughly follow the money, along with other huge sums that Mackay and Connolly have finagled with around the state. The panel should also expose the potentially criminal fraud that undergirds the party in the city.

And next year, Cuomo should make a pariah of the party, as should Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Controller Tom DiNapoli in seeking reelection.

Political parties gain official recognition — and control of a ballot line — by securing at least 50,000 votes for their gubernatorial choices. With Cuomo as standard-bearer, the Independence Party would easily hit the mark. Without Cuomo, the party would likely fall short.

That would be the end of the party’s ballot line — and of a fraud that has gone on too long.