A New York man who described himself as an Antifa supporter was charged after allegedly stealing Republican campaign signs in the race to succeed Elise Stefanik, and the GOP candidate says the thefts are meant to intimidate voters.
Josef Marris was arrested after he was allegedly caught on video taking campaign signs belonging to Republican congressional candidate Anthony Constantino while driving his employer’s vehicle, Fox News Digital reported.
The Essex County Sheriff’s Office charged Marris with two counts of criminal possession of stolen property. Constantino is running in New York’s 21st Congressional District, the open seat left by retiring Rep. Elise Stefanik. Democrat Blake Gendebien leads in that contest.
Constantino’s campaign said Marris was fired from East Branch Organics after the alleged incident. The campaign also alleged the thefts were carried out on Gendebien’s behalf. Gendebien’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Constantino told Fox News Digital the damage goes far beyond one set of missing signs.
"My campaign has lost more than $100,000 to sign theft and vandalism."
He framed the thefts as a pattern of pressure on his supporters, not random mischief.
"There are now multiple attempts to intimidate my supporters by people who are clearly pro-crime and pro-violence. The media needs to stop pretending this is a both-sides problem."
On X, Constantino also wrote that the Democrat “is surrounded by FAR LEFT EXTREMISTS.” Those are his words and his campaign’s claims. No charging document in the available reporting ties Gendebien or his campaign staff to the alleged thefts.
Fox News Digital reviewed social media posts tied to Marris. In that material, he described himself as a communist and an Antifa supporter. In April 2023 he posted an image of the three-arrow symbol long linked to socialist and anti-fascist movements.
The reporting is careful on what that does and does not prove. The symbol alone does not establish that Marris is a formal Antifa member. It also does not establish any operational link between Marris and Gendebien’s campaign. The charges themselves are the two counts of criminal possession of stolen property, attributed to the Essex County Sheriff’s Office.
Still, the self-description matters to voters watching a competitive House race. Campaign signs are basic political speech. Stealing them is not debate. It is property crime aimed at a candidate’s visibility and at the people who put those signs in their yards.
New York’s 21st has long leaned Republican. North Country Public Radio has moved its rating of the district from “solid” Republican to “likely” Republican as the Stefanik succession race unfolds and Gendebien holds a lead over Constantino.
That is the backdrop for Constantino’s complaint: more than $100,000 lost to theft and vandalism, video that allegedly shows Marris taking signs while using a work vehicle, an arrest, two felony-level possession counts as described by the sheriff’s office, and a firing reported by the Constantino campaign.
What the public still does not have from officials is a full timeline. The reporting does not give the exact date or street of the alleged theft, the full text of any sheriff’s release, a docket number, or independent confirmation from East Branch Organics of the firing and vehicle use. It also does not show evidence beyond the Constantino campaign’s allegation that Marris acted for Gendebien.
Those gaps do not erase what is on the record. A man who called himself an Antifa supporter was charged after allegedly being filmed stealing a Republican’s campaign signs. The Republican says the goal is intimidation. The Democrat’s campaign stayed silent when asked.
Lawful campaigns put signs out. Voters who host them take a public stand. When those signs disappear into the back of someone else’s truck, the cost is not only plastic and stakes, it is the message that dissent can be stolen off a lawn without consequence.
If elections are contests of ideas, the answer to a yard sign is another yard sign, not a nighttime grab and a shrug.
Property crime aimed at political speech is not activism. It is lawlessness dressed up as politics, and voters in NY-21 deserve better than silence from the side that benefits when Republican signs vanish.
