Mark John Grisanti is an American lawyer, politician, and judge from New York. After being elected to the New York State Senate in District 60 as a Republican in 2010, Grisanti took office as a State Senator on January 3, 2011. Grisanti served in the State Senate from 2011 to 2014, when he was defeated in the Republican primary and in the general election. Grisanti was appointed to the New York StateCourt of Claims in May 2015 and later became an Acting Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Eighth Judicial District. Grisanti is notable as one of four Republican Members of the New York State Senate that voted in favor of the Marriage Equality Act in 2011.
Early life, education, and early career
Grisanti was born and raised in Buffalo, the youngest of six brothers and sisters. He graduated from Sweet Home High School, located in Amherst, New York, and attended Canisius College, located in Buffalo, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English. After finishing his undergraduate degree he received his Juris Doctor from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School, located in Lansing, Michigan. After graduating from 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.
Grisanti stood for election to the State Senate again in the 2010 state senate elections; this time, he ran as a Republican. His 525-vote victory over incumbent Senator Antoine Thompson, which was initially contested, was considered an upset. Grisanti's victory helped the GOP obtain regain the Senate majority by a slender 32-30 margin. 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.
State Senate tenure
Grisanti received significant support and visibility from Senate Republicans, who engaged in a "Protect Grisanti" effort to increase his electability in the lead-up to the state's 2012 elections. On February 11, 2012, Grisanti and his wife were reportedly attacked at a fundraising gala held at the Seneca Niagara Casino by a casino shareholder who accused the senator of hating the Seneca nation, which owns the casino. According to the New York Times, Sen. Grisanti's account of the events of February 11 was challenged by witnesses who claimed that the Senator was the aggressor. While Sen. Grisanti expressed an intention to press charges following the incident, no charges were ever filed, and the matter was closed. In January 2013, Sen. Grisanti voted in favor of the NY SAFE Act, a controversial gun control measure.
Same-sex marriage
During his 2010 Senate campaign, Grisanti declared himself to be "unalterably opposed" to same-sex marriage and sought support from the National Organization for Marriage. 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, 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 was one of four Republican state senators that voted in favor of the Marriage Equality Act. Sen. Grisanti's marriage vote cost him the Conservative Party line, which provided his margin of victory in 2010. Both the Conservative Party and the National Organization for Marriage endorsed Democrat Charles Swanick to run against Sen. Grisanti in 2012. Despite this, Sen. Grisanti was re-elected in 2012. 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.
2012 State Senate campaign
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 won re-election in the 2012 general election with 50% of the vote. The Democratic candidate, Michael L. Amodeo, came in second with 36% of the vote, while Conservative Party candidate Charles M. Swanick received 12% of the vote.
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.
Judicial career
In 2015, Grisanti was appointed to the New York State Court of Claims by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Grisanti's appointment was confirmed by the New York State Senate in May 2015. As of October 2018, Grisanti serves as an Acting Justice of the New York State Supreme Court for the Eighth Judicial District.
