Mark Grisanti
Encyclopedia
Mark John Grisanti is a lawyer and politician.

On January 3, 2011, he assumed office as the Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 New York State Senator
New York State Senate
The New York State Senate is one of two houses in the New York State Legislature and has members each elected to two-year terms. There are no limits on the number of terms one may serve...

 representing New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

's 60th Senate District – which encompasses the areas of Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

, Tonawanda
Tonawanda (city), New York
Tonawanda is a city in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 16,136 at the 2000 census. It is located at the northern edge of Erie County, south across the Erie Canal from North Tonawanda, and north of Buffalo, New York...

, Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls, New York
Niagara Falls is a city in Niagara County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 50,193, down from the 55,593 recorded in the 2000 census. It is across the Niagara River from Niagara Falls, Ontario , both named after the famed Niagara Falls which they...

 and Grand Island
Grand Island, New York
Grand Island is a town and an island in Erie County, New York, USA. As of the 2010 census, the town population is 20,374. This represents an increase of 9.41% from the 2000 census figure . The current town name derives from the French name La Grande Île, as Grand Island is the largest island in...

, New York – having won the seat during the state's 2010 elections
New York state elections, 2010
The 2010 New York state elections took place on November 2, 2010. These included elections for both Senate seats and a gubernatorial election....

 held on November 2, 2010.

Early life and education

Grisanti was born and raised in Buffalo, the youngest of six brothers and sisters.

He graduated from Sweet Home High School, located in Amherst
Amherst, New York
Amherst is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 122,366. This represents an increase of 5.0% from the 2000 census. The town is named for Jeffrey Amherst, a British Army officer of the colonial period...

, New York, and attended Canisius College
Canisius College
Canisius College is a private Roman Catholic college in Buffalo, New York, United States. The college was founded in 1870 by members of the Society of Jesus from Germany and is named after St. Peter Canisius. The college is one of 28 institutions in the Association of Jesuit Colleges and...

, located in Buffalo, where he received his Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degree in English. After finishing his undergraduate degree he received his Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...

 from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School
Thomas M. Cooley Law School
Thomas M. Cooley Law School is an American Bar Association accredited law school in the United States. Located in Michigan, its main campus is in Lansing, and its satellite campuses are in Ann Arbor, Auburn Hills, and Grand Rapids. Cooley plans on opening another satellite campus in Tampa Bay,...

, located in Lansing
Lansing, Michigan
Lansing is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located mostly in Ingham County, although small portions of the city extend into Eaton County. The 2010 Census places the city's population at 114,297, making it the fifth largest city in Michigan...

, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

. Throughout college he was a member of the Student Bar Association
Student Bar Association
Student bar associations are student organizations that exist at many laws schools in the United States. Student bar associations take their name from bar associations, which are professional bodies of lawyers....

, received numerous certificates and book awards, and was a member of the Entertainment Committee for the Bar Association and the Italian Law Society.

Lawyer

After graduating law school, Grisanti worked at his father’s law firm that his grandfather had founded in 1921. As a third-generation attorney, he has worked at his family’s practice for over eighteen years. Grisanti first became interested in running for State Senate when practicing law on the lower-west side of Buffalo.

2008 Democratic primary defeat

Grisanti was defeated in the 2008 Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 primary for the 60th Senate District, losing heavily to Antoine Thompson
Antoine Thompson
Antoine Maurice Thompson was a Democratic New York State Senator who represented the state's 60th Senate district, which includes parts of Buffalo and Tonawanda, the City of Niagara Falls and the Town of Grand Island. Thompson previously served for six years as the Masten District councilman in...

, 72 to 28 percent; Thompson went on to win the senate seat in the state's 2008 general election.

2010 general-election victory as Republican

Grisanti stood for election to the State Senate seat again in the 2010 state senate elections
New York state elections, 2010
The 2010 New York state elections took place on November 2, 2010. These included elections for both Senate seats and a gubernatorial election....

. His 525-vote victory over incumbent Thompson, which was initially contested, was considered an upset.

The 60th Senate District is the most Democratic-leaning of the all Republican-held Senate seats, with 104,000 registered Democrats and 22,000 registered Republicans. Although Grisanti was a registered Democrat during the race, he received a waiver to run on the Republican line; after his victory, he agreed to caucus with Senate Republicans and switched his party registration to Republican.

The contest between Grisanti and Thompson was marked by mailers attacking Grisanti for his criminal-defense work and allegations that Thompson had improperly interceded in redirecting a state grant from the City of Niagara Falls to a private firm owned by a real-estate developer.

The fallout from the grant allegations hurt Thompson and he received only 36 percent of the vote in Niagara Falls, bolstering Grisanti's 525-vote district-wide victory.

State Senator

Grisanti has received significant support and visibility from Senate Republicans, who have been engaged in a "Protect Grisanti" effort to increase his electability in the lead-up to the state's 2012 elections. Senate Republican leadership have included Grisanti in a number of highly visible initiatives to boost his press coverage and voter favorability.

Same-sex marriage
During a March 4, 2011, concert in Buffalo, the singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Lady Gaga
Lady GaGa
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...

 asked her fans to email Grisanti and urge him to vote yes for same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....

 in the state senate. Grisanti's office received about 600 emails, both for and against same-sex marriage.

Grisanti has been criticized for his comments on same-sex marriage. In a radio interview on March 8, 2011, he said:

Civil unions and all the proponents that go along with that, I have no problem with. I have a problem with the term marriage itself. To me, marriage is between a man and a woman. It's been a term, a term of ours for years that has been around for thousands of years. It's like calling a cat, a dog. I don't think that that needs to be changed.


State Senator Thomas Duane
Thomas Duane
Thomas K. Duane is an American politician from New York, currently serving in the New York State Senate. He was the nation's first openly HIV-positive person elected to office....

 called Grisanti's comments "sad and unfortunate".

On March 9, 2011, Grisanti said Duane was taking his words out of context, saying he was simply trying to say he views the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman:

So if he doesn't understand that concept of what I was trying to say, then I'm sorry for his misunderstanding of what I'm saying, but that's my opinion of what marriage is.


On May 17, 2011, it was reported that Grisanti had publicly stated that he would vote "no" on same-sex marriage.

On June 17, 2011, it was reported that he had changed his position on same-sex marriage to "undecided".

On June 24, 2011, Grisanti voted in favor of the Marriage Equality Act
Marriage Equality Act
The Marriage Equality Act is a 2011 New York State law that allows gender-neutral marriages for both same- and opposite-sex couples, while prohibiting state and local courts and governments from penalizing religious and religious-supervised institutions, their employees, or clergy for refusing to...

, which allows gender-neutral marriages for both same- and opposite-sex couples in New York, saying that he had researched the issue and that "a man can be wiser today than yesterday, but there can be no respect for that man if he has failed to do his duty." Grisanti said this even though he was raised Catholic to believe marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 is between a man and woman. "I cannot deny a person, a human being, a taxpayer, a worker, the people of my district and across this state, the State of New York, and those people who make this the great state that it is the same rights that I have with my wife," Grisanti said on the floor of the State Senate, prior to his vote.

Personal life

Grisanti attends St. Rose Catholic Church, and resides in North Buffalo with his wife Maria, and three children, Ashlee, John, and Theresa.

See also



External links

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