Lost in the accolades – from Democrats — of U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado’s impending elevation (?) to state lieutenant governor is the stark reality that the not quite two-term congressman abandoned his constituents for higher office.

How else to view Delgado’s acceptance of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s surprising offer of lieutenant governor as her running mate in the November elections? Delgado, like Hochul a Democrat (the only party that really matters in New York) will soon vacate the office he has held since January 2019.

Some might see Delgado as a rank opportunist. He moved from New Jersey to run for an open congressional seat in 2018 and now he’ll be moving to Albany (while maintaining his residence in Rhinebeck) to seize on this latest opportunity.

But Delgado did not just abandon his own constituents for the obscurity of being Hochul’s No. 2. Congress itself is very much in play with Democrats fighting to hold their slim majority against onrushing Republicans. Might Delgado have considered the consequences of giving up a relatively safe seat on his soon-to-be former colleagues?

Delgado and his supporters spin the notion that as a lieutenant governor he can better serve his former 19th District constituents. Hah!

Delgado’s anointment only clouds what are murky waters surrounding this election. Or as would-be opponent Marc Molinaro quipped upon hearing the news, “Now I not only don’t have a district to run in (due to a Democratic gerrymander plan thrown out by the courts), I don’t even have an opponent.”

At least Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, “seriously considering” a run in a district not yet defined, has an identifiable opponent, but that could change suddenly, too. That is, if speculation about how a court-appointed mapmaker might make the Hudson River the dividing line for regional congressional districts becomes fact.

But let’s not get too far afield here. Another question about Delgado’s bailout surrounds the $5 million war chest he had gathered to defend his congressional seat against a hard-charging Molinaro. Campaign spending laws are rather loose on the subject of how a politician, after receiving donations, can spend the money. Generally speaking, it’s supposed to go into campaigns. But whose? Might some significant portion of that boodle, like a dowry, be added to Hochul’s already bulging war chest by her new running mate? Was it a factor in his appointment? And how would those donors who gave money toward specifically saving Congress from those barbarians at the gate feel about their contributions being sluiced off for a state contest? Not very happy, ya think?

So, sorry, fellow Democrats, but I just can’t wish our departing congressman good luck in his next endeavor. He should have stood tall (he’s six-foot-four) and fought the good fight. Hochul would have had no trouble finding someone else.

Meanwhile, freshman state Senator Michelle Hinchey’s very brief entry into the congressional lists — something like 48 hours between her expressed “interest” in the job and her hasty exit — merits only a passing glance.

Hinchey’s handlers must have realized very quickly that their standard-bearer would have faced the possibility of losing two jobs in less than a year. First of all, she couldn’t run for two offices in the same year. While she would have retained her Senate seat until the end of the year had she run for Congress and lost, her senate term would have expired and she’d have had no place to go on Jan. 1.

Then there’s the problem of a 16-month state senator running for a congressional seat that her father, the late Rep. Maurice Hinchey, held for 20 years. But Hinchey served 18 years in the state Assembly before he got his shot at Congress. Bad optics.

He: I contributed to the Gateway raffle all those years and you never gave me a dime. (The bickering pair were going to split the proceeds.)

She: But you never won anything.

Council Capers

Sometimes Kingston’s nine-member Common Council acts like a circular firing squad. Witness last week’s hubbub over Lone Ranger Alderwoman Michele Hirsch’s failed attempt at rallying colleagues to investigate allegations of police department misbehavior — lying under oath at a recent murder trial.

I had talked to my alderperson the day she issued her press release on the police department and cautioned her she was getting into deep water. I had no idea how deep; neither, I would guess, did she.

Hirsch’s idea was swiftly shot down by council Majority Leader Rita Worthington as essentially one hand clapping. Worthington, a woman of considerable patience, dismissed it as “performance." Ouch.

But Hirsch has left her mark, maybe a bruise. We talk about misinformation and disinformation these days, but how about uninformation? One of the questions I had asked Hirsch was how much support she had from fellow council members. The honest answer would have been “absolutely none,” but instead she told me, “We talked about it.” In fact, she had made a motion for the probe at the council’s monthly legislative caucus and failed to get a second. Bang! Or so say those in attendance.