District towns: Bozrah, Franklin, Lebanon, Montville

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Election history: Ryan was elected in 1992 in a district redrawn after the 1990 census. In 2008, he was unopposed.

2008 general election

*Unopposed

Public financing: Ryan did not seek public financing.

Background: Ryan's career survived a repeat DUI conviction and a sentence of 120 days in prison in 2001. Despite his time behind bars, Ryan won re-election by 1,008 votes in 2002, 2,734 votes in 2004 and 2,357 in 2006. In 2008, the GOP did bother to nominate an opponent.

Ryan and his fellow eastern Connecticut legislator, Sen. Edith G. Prague, D-Columbia, have been staunch allies of organized labor as co-chairs of the Labor and Public Employees Committee. In 2009, a bill they backed to mandate paid sick days passed the House by a vote of 88-58, but it died on the Senate calendar.

In 2010, Ryan was appointed a deputy speaker and gave up the committee co-chairmanship.

Ryan lives in the Oakdale section of Montville.

Committees: Appropriations, Labor (co-chair), Public Health

Education: B.A., B.S., Villanova University; M.A., University of New Haven; B.S., O.D., Pennsylvania College of Optometry

Occupation: Adjunct professor, University of New Haven

2008 Financial Disclosure: Ryan's only reported income outside his legislative salary was from the University of New Haven, where he teaches physics. He owns a home in Montiville and several mutual funds.

He filed a confidential addendum listing any debts exceeding $10,000. He declined to release the addendum, as is his choice under the law.

A note on financial disclosure: Every spring, officials are required to disclose the ownership of real estate, the source of any income exceeding $1,000 in the previous calendar year and securities worth more than $5,000. They also are required to file an addendum in which they report any debt of more than $10,000; this may by law be kept confidential.