Metro

Independence Party big promises change after ‘secret deal’ with Mike

The chairman of the state Independence Party is having second thoughts about teaming up with Mayor Bloomberg’s campaign to hire a secretive company that provided poll watchers in last year’s election.

Party chairman Frank MacKay said that party leaders would carefully evaluate all such deals in the future.

“We’ll discuss privately who to work with,” he said. “If a candidate comes and says, hire Joe Doe or Jane Doe, we’ll have a discussion with that candidate. I’m saying any candidate that we’ve ever worked with.”

Bloomberg delivered $1.2 million to the state Independence Party, including $750,000 for Special Election Operations LLC, so it could mount what officials described as a poll-watching operation.

Poll watchers typically are stationed at polling places to ensure that only registered voters cast ballots and to report turnout and irregularities to party headquarters.

But Special Election Operations didn’t register with the state until Dec. 3 — a month after the election.

For days, mayoral aides and Independence Party officials refused to say who was behind the firm. They finally ‘fessed up that it was John Haggerty Jr., a veteran Republican operative who was working as what they called a “volunteer” in Bloomberg’s re-election effort.

At The Post’s request, Bloomberg campaign lawyer Ken Gross provided copies of checks that went to three of the poll watchers. Each received $500.

Mayoral aides said 200 to 300 poll workers were hired, which would result in an expenditure of no more than $150,000 at the $500 rate — leaving $600,000 of the $750,000 unaccounted for.

Howard Wolfson, the mayor’s campaign spokesman, insisted that none of the money went to other purposes. He said the poll-watching account covered expenses such as drivers, cellphones and food as well as wages. He also said that not all of the $750,000 was spent.

But three months after the election, Wolfson couldn’t say how much was left.

“Bills are still being reconciled,” he explained.

david.seifman@nypost.com