Elections 2008 State Senate campaign Grisanti was defeated in the 2008
Democratic primary for the 60th Senate District, losing heavily to
Antoine Thompson, 72 to 28 percent; Thompson went on to win the Senate seat in the
state's 2008 general election.
2010 State Senate campaign Grisanti stood for election to the State Senate again in the
2010 state senate elections; this time, he ran as a Republican. Grisanti defeated incumbent Senator
Antoine Thompson by 525 votes. His victory, which was initially challenged, was considered an upset. Grisanti's victory helped the GOP obtain regain the Senate majority by a slender 32-30 margin. As of 2011, the 60th Senate District was the most Democratic-leaning of the all Republican-held Senate seats, with 104,000 registered Democrats and 22,000 registered Republicans. Grisanti faced a challenge in the Republican primary for the 60th district from attorney Kevin Stocker of Kenmore, NY. Grisanti won the primary with a 60 percent to 40 percent margin after a campaign in which "much of the bitterest politicking had revolved around Grisanti's controversial 2011 vote to support legalizing same-sex marriage in the state." "We took the high road, because we don't care about the smut, we care about what is important for the residents of Western New York," Grisanti said. Grisanti's primary campaign was more successful than the primary campaigns of the other two Senate Republicans who voted for same-sex marriage and ran for re-election; Sen.
Stephen Saland barely defeated his primary challenger, while Sen.
Roy J. McDonald was defeated by
Kathy Marchione. Grisanti's same-sex marriage vote also cost him the
Conservative Party line. Grisanti won re-election in the 2012 general election, receiving 63,683 votes. Democratic candidate Michael L. Amodeo came in second with 45,140 votes, Charles Swanick received 15,027 votes on the Conservative line, and Gregory Davis received 3,078 votes on the
Working Families Party line.
2014 State Senate campaign Sen. Grisanti was defeated by Kevin Stocker in a Republican primary in September 2014. While Sen. Grisanti remained in the 2014 general election race on a third-party line, he finished in third place in a hotly contested election; the winner, Democrat
Marc Panepinto, received only 3,681 votes more than Grisanti did.
Tenure Grisanti had declared his opposition to same-sex marriage during his 2010 campaign. Grisanti voted in favor of the
Marriage Equality Act, which allows gender-neutral marriages for both same- and opposite-sex couples in New York. Grisanti stated 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 was one of four Republican state senators that voted in favor of the
Marriage Equality Act. On February 11, 2012, Grisanti was involved in an altercation at a fundraising gala held at the
Seneca Niagara Casino. The altercation involved a casino shareholder who accused the senator of hating the
Seneca nation, which owns the casino. Grisanti said he had been attacked after trying to mediate a dispute, but some witnesses told reporters that he was the aggressor. No charges were filed. In January 2013, Sen. Grisanti voted in favor of the NY SAFE Act, a controversial gun control measure. Also in 2013, Grisanti was a signatory to an
amicus curiae brief submitted to the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage in the
Hollingsworth v. Perry case. ==Judicial career==