Assemblyman Carmelo Garcia (D-33) bid his constituents adieu with a farewell party at the Hoboken Elks Lodge on Thursday night, where about 50 constituents stopped by to show their support.
” … All the people that are here, in this intimate moment for me, I am truly, truly humbled and honored and grateful for your friendship. For your … trust, your belief, in my movement, because it is a brand,” Garcia told his guests on hand.
“The ‘I can, I will, watch me’ will be a brand that’ll live on forever and ‘we can, will will, watch us’ will be something that I know groups will continue to use when they’re struggling because there are two parts of life that are so prominent: and that is the struggle and the progress.”
Garcia, as he has before, also recounted having to jump out of the third story window of his Hoboken apartment when he was 10 year old and his family was living in one of the city’ housing authority buildings.
For that reason, he says it was particularly humbling to become the executive director of the HHA (although he didn’t leave under the best circumstances, which has resulted in pending litigation) and eventually the state Assemblyman of the 33rd Legislative District – where he was “the voice to represent the voiceless.”
Garcia, a former deputy mayor under David Roberts, tried to continue his political career when he embarked on a bitter campaign to unseat 6th Ward Councilwoman Jen Giattino, but he came up short.
When asked if he would be interested in running for councilman-at-large run in 2017, Garcia said he wasn’t thinking that far ahead and was looking forward to being back on a somewhat regular schedule and spending more time with his family in 2016.
Editor’s Note: After this story was published, members of Carmelo Garcia’s staff told us that from start to finish, about 7 p.m. until 10 p.m., 100 guests attended the event.