California State SenateCandidate for District 30Short Term

Biography:

Joe was born into a large family of 9 brothers and sisters and knows what it’s like for a family to work hard to survive. Three of Joe’s siblings were born with special needs. His little brother Benjamin contracted Leukemia, a blood cancer, at age 4, while his older sister Gina was born with neurological brain damage and his older brother Tony without the ability to hear or talk. Hence, from childhood on, Joe learned the meaning of the word struggle but also the meaning of the words: love, help and compassion.

Joe’s mother Clare had 9 children to feed and loved cooking for them! Being one of the first children in his family to attend college, Joe eventually helped his parents open their restaurant in Los Angeles called “Al Gelato” where he and his brothers and sisters worked together, 7 days per week. Over the course of 32 years in business, Joe learned about serving the public. He also learned about manufacturing, packaging food products, hiring hundreds of people, training staff members, doing payroll and watching a business grow through dedicated “teamwork.” Most importantly, Joe learned from his family and years in business to “never give up,” no matter how difficult the challenge.

Joe feels blessed to have been born into a large family with challenges for it taught him how to embrace adversity. Over the years Joe has worked to help the homeless in L.A. and Veterans at the West Los Angeles VA. He has helped feed thousands at food missions, while his wife Karen Michelle, also a small business owner, has been manufacturing masks during the Covid-19 crisis and distributing them to L.A.’s Midnight Mission, with the non-profit charity “Artists for Trauma” where Karen is a community partner.

Joe believes we must never give up on our “Golden State” despite its many challenges. Rather than run away, Joe wants to stay in L.A. and correct its issues. His wife, their sons, and their wives all live and work here and Joe looks forward to raising his grandchildren here too. Americans can fix anything if we work as a team. L.A. is filled with great people but we need to vote in order to make real change happen. Joe hopes that you will trust in his past decades of experience to allow him to continue to “Serve You” and to help fix Los Angeles and make California a better place for All to live and work.

Joe is all about Service. After decades of successfully serving the community in private business, Joe now wants to bring his skillset to serve the community in public office. Serving the public should be exactly that: Serving Others. As a public servant, Joe plans to transcend politics and solely focus on working with all his colleagues in the state senate to fix L.A.’s and California issues that affect, you, your job, your taxes, your family and your environment. Joe promises to be “Your Employee” and work for You; not the other way around.