sen grisanti of buffalo gives politics a good name (Niagara Falls: tax, live)

[citylove101]

watching the state senate debate on gay marriage last night i couldn't help but be mightily impressed by this freshman state senator. rarely does one see a politician of any party balance his personal and political beliefs for a vote of conscience and explain that vote with compassion, honesty, and simplicity. i have great admiration for the struggle he went through before voting for gay marriage.

my questions to my upstate brothers and sisters: will this earn him love and respect, or did he sign his political death warrant? i am a liberal democrat basically, and dont know anything about the local politics there.but grisanti conducted himself last night with such integrity, that i might even vote for him if i lived in buffalo.

[jblake78728]

The far right will tell you he signed a political death warrant because he ran on a anti same sex marriage platform but truth be told he's a Republican in a heavily Democrat district that was only elected because the voters were sick of the incumbents shenanigans. Though the preachers, priests, faith healers & other snake oil salesmen in his district would disagree I think he just improved his shot at re-election (due to the left leaning make up of his district). He certainly won the respect of the liberals in his district & we all know the right wingers are either going to hold their nose & vote for him or not vote at all.

As for the political makeup of the area the city of Buffalo is heavily slanted left & most middle class suburbs are as well. Most of the upper middle class (and above) areas lean Republican but not the liberal hating, bible thumping, pitchfork carrying Republican types ...... you don't find many of those until you get into more rural areas.

[BuffaloTransplant]

Grisanti ran against gay marriage. Death warrant signed.

[mikesuicide]

I know an awful lot of people who voted for Antoine Thompson ONLY because he was for same sex marriage. Grasanti would have won by a far greater margin had it not been for that. other than the fringe right bible thumpers most people don't really think its really a issue worth discussing. It will do nothing but infringe upon ideology...nothing else. I for one will most assuredly vote for Grisanti. The voting power of the gay community is overwhelming. I am straight and I am an ally...so are many many other straight WNYers

[JSmith11]

I think Grisanti had nothing to lose, really. As jblake said, his election was a real fluke only made possible by his opponent being scandal-ridden and seemingly corrupt and incompetent. He had no real chance of winning re-election against a competent Democrat, but this really helps his cred in this district. If the Republican Party disowns him and he switches back to Democrat (which he was originally) or even runs as an independent, I think he has a very strong chance of retaining his seat.

But I do admire his integrity of doing what he came to believe was right regardless of the political consequences.

[BuffaloLight]

Yeah, the fact that Grisanti was even elected in the first place was nothing short of a miracle. This was a district that was specifically carved out by democrats so they couldn't lose. A District that has 5 registered democrats to every Republican. And Grisanti only won by 500 votes.

If Thompson was a do nothing/say nothing representative he would still be in office. But every other month there was a story breaking about some closed door deal, or his vacation to the Bahamas on the tax payer dime, or stealing money, or giving his friends the breaks, or just every time he opened his damn mouth or giving large sums of taxpayer money to a billionaire from NYC that has single highhandedly held back downtown Niagara Falls for a decade or two.

If anything, this has only helped him to get reelected.