CONGRESS

CONGRESS
Finding ideal job surprise for Ryan Internship in D.C. gave him a love for politics
The congressman also considered careers in coaching and foreign diplomacy.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
WARREN -- During his first football scrimmage as a Youngstown State University quarterback in 1991, Tim Ryan got his leg caught on the field's turf while being gang-tackled and blew out his knee.
The hit essentially ended his college football playing days and his dream of being a professional quarterback. He returned the following year, playing on opening day during a YSU blow-out victory completing one of his three passing attempts for seven yards.
But the former Warren John F. Kennedy High School football and basketball standout was gun-shy on the field after the scrimmage hit.
With little direction, Ryan left YSU after the first semester of his sophomore year for Bowling Green State University because "lots of my friends went there."
Ryan was an education major at YSU, and if the long-shot pro football dream didn't materialize, he wanted to be a sports coach. Now the two-term congressman dreams of being appointed to the U.S. House Appropriations Committee and possibly running for Ohio governor.
Looking for direction
Ryan had a passing interest in politics during his high school and undergraduate college years but never envisioned himself as an elected officeholder.
"I liked history and reading the newspaper, so I became a political science major," he said.
Ryan had met then-U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. a few years earlier at a high school sports banquet. Traficant said if Ryan ever needed advice, assistance or even a possible internship to give him a call.
Looking for some direction, Ryan contacted Traficant about a summer internship before his senior year at Bowling Green. Traficant let Ryan be an unpaid intern for the summer.
"I caught the bug," Ryan said. "I went down there and had a blast. Capitol Hill is a great place for a young person. I decided I wanted to go back after graduation."
After Ryan earned his bachelor of arts degree in 1995, Traficant hired him as a staff assistant in D.C. for $18,000 a year doing research and constituent service. Ryan lived with his aunt near Washington, got money from his mother and grandmother, and cut grass at times to supplement his income.
Also, Ryan and a friend used an old D.C. trick that underpaid congressional staffers often employ.
"We'd go to receptions [for congressional staff] for free food and drinks," he said. "We'd call up and say, 'A couple of staffers from the congressman's office are coming to the reception.' Also, my buddy knew when bars had $1 beer specials and happy hours."
The next year, Ryan moved to Traficant's Niles office. Ryan wanted to come home to be the freshman basketball coach at JFK: a job with no salary.
Ryan reconsidered coaching as a profession after his team went 16-0 during the regular season. He displays an autographed picture of the team in his Warren office.
Off to law school
"I had the political thing going and the coaching bug," he said. "My mom and grandma were all over me to go to law school. For the adventure, I decided to go to a place far from home for law school."
That place was the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, N.H.
Ryan couldn't shake his interest in politics, so he walked into the local Democratic Party headquarters in Concord in 1998 and volunteered to help Steve DeStefano. Ryan quickly became the campaign manager for the state Senate candidate, and DeStefano nearly won, losing by seven votes to an incumbent Republican.
"I held signs on the side of the road for him," Ryan said.
That idea would serve Ryan well during his 32nd state Senate District race in 2000 and his 2002 victory for the 17th Congressional District.
While at Franklin Pierce, Ryan took an international law class and spent a summer in Italy.
"If I had to make a decision at that time, I'd have gone into foreign service," he said.
But something else happened.
Ryan returned to Niles for a few weeks in late 1999 and visited with then-Trumbull County Democratic Chairman Nicholas Melfi. Ryan knew that then-state Sen. Anthony Latell couldn't run for re-election in 2000 because of the state's term limits law.
Making a decision
"Before I made a final decision on my future, I started to think that some young 26-year-old law school student could maybe win that state Senate race," he said. "I'm from Niles and went to school in Warren. I was a basketball and football player with an Irish last name and an Italian family background. I ran the state Senate race in New Hampshire so I thought, 'This isn't so hard.'"
In the five-person Democratic primary, the 26-year-old with braces who lived with his mother won. He also won the general election.
"I was learning the ropes, and the [congressional] redistricting map came out," Ryan said. "I saw it, and sitting in the middle of the new district was Trumbull County."
State Sen. Eric Fingerhut, a Cleveland Democrat, explained the changes to his fellow Democratic colleagues.
"He said, 'This is Tim Ryan's new congressional district,'" Ryan said.
Ryan said he thought about running for several weeks and circulated nominating petitions for the job. He decided to run three days before the filing deadline for the May 2002 primary.
Just as he did two years earlier, Ryan pulled an upset, winning the Democratic primary for the congressional seat. He also won the general election.
Ryan said his age, 28, combined with his last name and Italian background significantly helped his campaign.
As for being a congressman, Ryan said, "You can't understand it until you're in it: the demands, the time and the commitments."
When he returned to D.C., Ryan was constantly asked by Capitol Hill security for identification. Now, they recognize him.
Current work
Ryan has seats on two important House committees: Education and Workforce, and Armed Services. Armed Services was important because of the possibility of the government shutting down the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna.
With that concern now resolved, Ryan's priorities are seeing if a proposed $300 million indoor racetrack in Vienna is feasible, rebuilding the downtowns of Youngstown and Warren, and developing high technology projects in the Valley through partnerships among the air base, YSU and Kent Trumbull Campus.
National and state Democrats heavily lobbied Ryan earlier this year to run for the U.S. Senate in 2006 before he declined the offer.
"I don't know if I'd ever run for the Senate," he said. "It would be cool to be senator, but I want to continue what I'm doing. If you're happy doing what you're doing, why does there have to be something else?"
Ryan's short-term goal is to get appointed to the House Appropriations Committee. Ryan said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said he's in line to get a seat but doesn't know when there will be an opening.
"If I get on appropriations, I don't know if I'd run for anything else," he said. "You have so much influence. I might run for governor, but you can't plan it. I didn't plan to run for state senator or Congress."
skolnick@vindy.com