“I’m not going to defend it. It was wrong. I was a young man. It was a horrible time, and I made a mistake. Obama came into office the year before," said Joseph Viso Jr when asked about the 2009 incident by the New Jersey Globe. Viso was 39-years-old at the time. Viso also has a lengthy criminal record that includes federal and state convictions on drug and gun charges and a history of financial issues. You might think that Republicans vet their candidates in some way - but you'd be wrong.
Joe Crifasi, the District 36 Republican chairman, said he knew about some of Viso’s criminal activities but distanced himself slightly.
“I’m not that active with the campaign,” Crifasi said. “I don’t recruit people. If they show up and want to run, then they get nominated. I’m just a figurehead.”
Apparently so. Viso also ran in 2021 where he finished 3rd behind two Democrats in the 36th district.
Source: New Jersey Globe
A Republican candidate for State Assembly in the 36th district plead guilty to smearing fecal matter on the doors of a children’s daycare center in East Rutherford following a 2009 neighborhood dispute with the owner, police records show.
Joseph Viso pled guilty to criminal mischief charges after a dispute with the owner of Children’s Studio, whose building was adjacent to an electrical company he owned at the time. He was fined $250.
“Those people harassed my men every day,” Viso told the New Jersey Globe. “They had cars ticketed every time my men parked on a side street.”
Colleen Dolaghan, the owner of the daycare center, had notified police that “someone smeared fecal matter over the handles and locks of all the doors of their business,” a police detective, Chris DeCarlo, said in his report.”
After DeCarlo advised Viso that there were pictures and video of the incident, Viso apologized, telling DeCarlo, “I am not proud of what I did.”
Viso, 52, told the New Jersey Globe that he had cleaned up the doors.
“It was done before anyone got hurt,” he said. “I’m not going to defend it. It was wrong. I was a young man. It was a horrible time, and I made a mistake. Obama came into office the year before.”
