State Assemblyman Vito Lopez’s Republican challenger jumped back into the race against the scandal-scarred pol yesterday, a day after he said he was going to drop his campaign.
“I am excited and enthusiastic,” Richy Garcia said after lunching with Brooklyn GOP Chairman Craig Eaton at a Sunset Park diner. “I spoke with friends and family, and decided this is something I need to do — that I need to ensure the community I am running in has a voice and has an alternative candidate to vote for.”
The meeting with GOP leaders was called after Garcia told WNYC radio that he was going to pull out of the race against the scandal-weakened Lopez.
Lopez (right) was stripped of most of his legislative power in August after being hit with sex-harassment allegations — which he’s denied. Though Lopez is giving up the Brooklyn Democratic leadership, he has resisted calls to resign his Assembly seat.
Eaton said media scrutiny on the Lopez scandal had gotten to Garcia, a 26-year-old worker at the city Board of Elections’ Brooklyn warehouse.