QAnon-supporting conspiracy theorist could rep Coney Island in New York Assembly
ALBANY — A QAnon-supporting Republican could soon represent Coney Island in the State Assembly.
Assemblywoman Mathylde Frontus currently trails GOP challenger Mark Szuszkiewicz, a conspiracy-minded political upstart who has questioned the severity of the coronavirus pandemic and falsely suggested in social media posts that actor Tom Hanks is a sexual deviant, according to Election Day results from the New York Board of Elections.
Szuszkiewicz has a 2,822 vote lead over Frontus in a district that includes Coney Island as well as parts of Brighton Beach, Gravesend, and Bay Ridge and has been repped by a Democrat for nearly a century.
The Coney Island native runs a cable TV political talk show and describes himself as a jack-of-all-trades who has worked as an actor, a truck driver and financial adviser.
Szuskiewicz’s social media posting reveal the Republican is a subscriber of the fringe QAnon ideology, which posits that political and Hollywood elites are part of a cabal of Satan-worshiping child sex-traffickers trying to undermine President Trump and is rife with anti-Semitic tropes and beliefs.
#QAnon and #Q hashtags litter Szuskiewicz’s Instagram and Twitter posts, as pointed out by The Brooklyn Paper.
In a July Instagram post, Szuszkiewicz suggested actor Tom Hanks became a Greek citizen because the country declared pedophilia a disability, which the Mediterranean nation has not done.
Hanks, Hillary Clinton and other prominent figures are often targeted by QAnon supporters.
He has also posted false information about COVID-19, claiming last month that the virus is no more deadly than the flu.
The Brooklyn Paper also noted that in 2008, Szuszkiewicz was indicted for aggravated assault and criminal contempt for allegedly stalking a coworker but the conviction was vacated after he sought psychiatric treatment.
Szuskiewicz claimed victory this week, arguing that Frontus will not be able to catch up to his lead even with absentee ballots still to be counted.
“Democrats are surprised that the people had enough of their destructive policies. My non partisan ideas resonated with many of the voters as well,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “My lead is large enough that the probability of the outstanding paper ballots making a difference is highly unlikely.”
Frontus, who replaced the disgraced Pamela Harris in 2018 after she pleaded guilty to corruption charges, says she believes there are enough outstanding ballots that could sway the race.
“Thousands of absentee votes have to be counted in our race. We won’t know the final results for some days,” she tweeted earlier in the week.
“Next week the BOE will begin counting absentee ballots,” she wrote in a separate posting. “Over 16,000 were requested for the 46th district. I won’t know the results of my race until every vote is counted.”
Szuskiewicz contends that, according to election officials, only 5,069 ballots were returned. Of those 3,346 were Democrats and 728 were Republicans, making it near impossible for the incumbent to catch up.
“The probability of me losing at this point is highly unlikely which is why I decided to declare victory and begin thanking voters yesterday,” he wrote.
