"[4] Married to Patricia McMahon, with four children, Villapiano has been the director and co-owner of a family-owned preschool and day camp in Long Branch.
[1] Villapiano and running mate Daniel P. Jacobson, a 27-year-old Township Council member in Ocean Township, were elected to full two-year terms in the Assembly in the November 1989 general election, while Republican Joseph A. Palaia defeated Democratic incumbent John D'Amico, Jr. for the seat in the New Jersey Senate.
As part of the Republican Party landslide in the 1991 general election as a backlash against Governor James Florio's tax increases, Villapiano and Jacobson lost their re-election bid and were replaced in the Assembly by Steve Corodemus and Thomas S.
[10] In his book How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative, Allen Raymond described his involvement in the 1991 race on behalf of the campaign committee of Assembly Speaker Chuck Haytaian, creating advertisements falsely implying that Villapiano had awarded himself bonuses after laying off dozens of employees at his day camp, and another piece that charged that Jacobson and Villapiano had been involved with crooked real estate deals.
[12] In March 2007, Villapiano announced that he would run as a Democrat to fill the New Jersey Senate seat being vacated by the retirement of Republican Joseph A.