Welcome another candidate to race the 60th District State Senate seat: Al Coppola, who held the seat previously, has indicated that he will challenge incumbent Mark Grisanti, a Republican. Coppola, a Democrat, says he feels compelled to join the race because Grisanti has failed to take a substantive position on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in New York State’s Marcellus Shale, and because Grisanti voted to reduce state funding to Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

Coppola joins a field that includes Democrat Michael Amodeo, a Hamburg attorney whose father's cousin, City Court Judge Thomas Amodeo, administered the oath of office to Grisanti; Democrat Chuck Swanick, former chair of the Erie County Legislature, who has the Erie County Conservative Party’s endorsement; Kenmore Mayor Patrick Mang, who is hoping for the Working Families Party line; and Republican Kevin Stocker, who hopes to kick Grisanti off the ballot line he rode into office in 2010.

This story has been updated to correct two errors; Michael Amodeo is from Hamburg and not Orchard Park, and Judge Thomas Amadeo is not the father of Mike Amodeo, but rather the cousin of his father.