Raised in Hoboken, he played prep baseball, basketball and football at A. J. Demarest High School (since renamed as Hoboken High School) and attended Wagner College, where he competed for four seasons on the Wagner Seahawks men's basketball team.
In 1974, Dario ran as part of Musto's successful Your Operation Uplift campaign for Union City Commissioners, together with a slate that included Bob Menendez.
[1] Dario had won two terms on the Union City Commission, but by 1982 he had broken away from Musto after he had been indicted, and ultimately convicted, on corruption charges.
[2] Dario and other former Musto supporters ran as part of an Alliance Civic Association slate that lost the 1982 elections.
In defeating incumbent Robert Ranieri and newcomer Mario R. Hernandez, the two Republican victors were among a group of four who were the first to represent the county in the State Assembly in more than 60 years.