[1] A longtime member of the Buffalo Common Council, representing the city's Delaware District,[2] Coppola was nominated by Democratic Party leaders in Erie and Niagara Counties in a February 2000 special election to fill a vacancy in the State Senate.
[5] Coppola defeated Niagara County Legislator Renae Kimble, a Democrat running on the Republican line, to win the Senate seat.
Coppola lost the September 2000 primary for a full two-year second term in the Senate to City of Buffalo Councilmember Byron Brown.
Coppola unsuccessfully challenged Brown in the 2002 and 2004 Democratic primaries for the Senate seat which in 2002 was renamed the 60th district and as the Republican nominee in the general election those years.
[11] Coppola ran for the office again in the September 13, 2012 primary election against endorsed Democrat Michael L. Amodeo and Charles Swanick, a former member of the Erie County legislature.