A Republican State Assembly candidate in a North Jersey district has a record of convictions on federal and state drug and gun charges and a history of financial issues.
Joseph Viso, Jr., 52, a Carlstadt electrician making his second bid for the Assembly in the 36th district, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of conspiracy to distribute Methylone in 2016 and was sentenced to three years on probation.
“I was sick fighting cancer, and I got myself in trouble,” Viso told the New Jersey Globe. “I had to sell my pain medications to pay for my health insurance.”
Viso said he disclosed his legal troubles to GOP leader Joe Crifasi when he decided to run earlier this year.
“I reached out to my district chair and asked if a person with a felony could run for office, and he said yes,” Viso said.
In 2014, Viso was charged with possessing a sawed-off shotgun near a school, possessing a gun while committing a crime, and multiple drug offenses in Carlstadt and East Rutherford. He accepted a plea deal and admitted to having a prohibited weapon, a defaced firearm, a 4th degree crime. He was sentenced to two years of probation in 2019.
“They raided my house and found a gun in my house,” he explained. “I live near a school.”
He told the New Jersey Globe that he agreed to plea deals only because he couldn’t afford lawyers.
He was charged with possession of heroin and jailed for seven days in 2013, records show, but he agreed to a plea deal and admitted to use/possession with intent to use drug paraphernalia.
Viso disputed that he was a heroin user, even though a police report alleges that “a small stack of glassine bags containing heroin and two straws with powder residue on them” was found inside a Sucrets tin in his car, records show.
“I wound up having to pee in a cup for a year,” he said. “I never tested positive for heroin.”
A letter filed with the U.S. District Court in 2016 said that he had been battling cancer for three years.
In 2010, Viso was charged with 1st degree burglary and for reconnecting an electric line after PSEG had disconnected it for non-payment.
Viso said he was charged with entering his own house.
“My uncle was squatting, and he got a restraining order,” the Assembly candidate explained. “It was all pled out.”
A copy of Viso’s nominating petition filed with the Division of Elections and obtained through a request filed under New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act shows that the Assembly candidate disclosed only his federal conviction.
Viso filed for bankruptcy in 2012, listing over $3.3 million in debts to over 200 creditors, including more than $3,000 to his bail bondsman, M&M Bail Bonds in Hackensack. Several of his properties had faced foreclosure, and court records show that he owed over $400,000 in credit card debt, more than $125,000 in unpaid business loans, more than $42,000 in unpaid federal and state income taxes, and over $2,000 in unpaid wages to employees.
He also owed thousands of dollars in unpaid tolls, had unpaid parking tickets totaling more than $6,000, and his tab for outstanding bills for unpaid code violations to the state was roughly $43,000. Three municipalities in the 36th district had also filed tax liens against Viso.
Viso was sued eleven times for non-payment of bills or by his tenants between 2011 and 2016. While his campaign website says he is an electrician with 50 employees, his financial disclosure shows that his only income is his disability payments.
He maintains that the criminal and financial issues he faced due to his cancer “actually makes me a stronger candidate.”
“I’m not holding anything back. I’m not claiming to be a perfect person,” Viso said. “It was the lowest part of my life.”
Viso is challenging two incumbents, Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) and Clinton Calabrese (D-Cliffside Park), in a Democratic-leaning legislative district that includes eleven municipalities in Bergen County and the City of Passaic in Passaic County.
When he ran in 2021, he ran 5,112 votes behind Calabrese. Gov Phil Murphy carried the newly-drawn 36th district by eight percentage points in 2021.
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