By Mark Wozniak
Buffalo, NY – Democratic Common Council member Marc Coppola won the vacant 60th district State Senate seat in a special election Tuesday.
Coppola defeated Republican Christopher Jacobs, a member of the Buffalo Board of Education. The seat was vacated when Byron Brown resigned to become mayor of Buffalo.
Coppola said he would focus on health care reform and unfunded mandates in the Republican-controlled Senate.
In parts of Niagara, Orleans and Genesee Counties, Stephen Hawley kept the 139th Assembly seat in Republican hands. He replaces former Assembly Minority Leader Charles H. Nesbitt, who resigned after an appointment to a state job in Albany.