Ohio: Seventeenth District

Rep. Tim Ryan (D)

Tim Ryan (D) Elected 2002, 3d term up
Born:	07-16-1973, Niles
Home:	Niles
Education:	Bowling Green St. U., B.A. 1995, Franklin Pierce Law Ctr., J.D. 2000
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	divorced
Elected  Office:	OH Senate, 2000-02.
Professional Career:	Aide, U.S. Rep. Jim Traficant, 1995-97.
DC Office	1421 LHOB, 20515 202-225-5261 Fax: 202-225-3719 Website: timryan.house.gov
State Offices	Akron:330-630-7311; Warren:330-373-0074; Youngstown:330-740-0193;
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For nearly a century, the Mahoning Valley, between the Lake Erie docks that unload iron ore from Great Lakes freighters and the coalfields of western Pennsylvania and West Virginia, was one of the steel capitals of the United States. The first coal mine here opened in 1826, canals followed, and in 1892 the first steel mill was built in Youngstown. The valley soon filled up with mills, converters, and furnaces. Now the steel mills stand empty, smokeless and silent—except those that have been dynamited or torn down. Big steel management allowed foreign producers to gain a technological edge in the 1950s and 1960s; worldwide overcapacity in steel grew as almost every developing country decided it needed its own steel mill, while cooperation between the United Steelworkers and management after the 119-day strike in 1959 boosted wages and fringe benefits to price domestic steel out of the market. Import restrictions kept the furnaces hot for a while, but the oil shock of the 1970s produced sharply higher energy prices and a collapse in the U.S. auto and steel markets. Every plant in the Mahoning Valley closed, with a loss of 40,000 jobs, and in the early 1980s metro Youngstown had one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates; from 1990 to 2004 the population of Youngstown’s Mahoning County declined by 6% and next-door Trumbull County’s by 3%. Steel has since revived, but not here: in decentralized mini-mills around the country or in huge new rolling plants in northern Indiana. The high-wage living standard vanished, though not all work: several aluminum plants opened in nearby Warren, but young people looking for opportunities routinely leave. Youngstown’s population was 82,000 in 2006, less than half of its size in the 1950s. Organized crime, it seems, has deeply infiltrated local government; a federal investigation led to more than 70 convictions, including a prosecutor, a sheriff and a congressman. Instead of looking for growth, local officials have responded to rampant abandoned property by deliberately downsizing local infrastructure and creating parks and open space, as they go from “gray to green.”

The 17th Congressional District of Ohio includes most of the Mahoning Valley industrial area—Youngstown, but not its southern Mahoning County suburbs, Warren and almost all of Trumbull County. It includes nearly all of Portage County to the west and part of eastern Summit County and Akron. It contains two loci of 1970s protest—Kent State University, where four war-protesting students were killed by National Guardsmen, and Lordstown, site of the General Motors plant where workers purposely built shoddy cars to protest the tedium of the assembly line. The division of Akron and Summit County among three districts in the 2002 redistricting caused local controversy, but was essential to a compromise between Republican and Democratic legislators. This is a Democratic district, 63% for John Kerry in 2004, his second best district in Ohio, even though the Democratic mayor of Youngstown endorsed George W. Bush, who held a rally at the Youngstown-Warren Airport in late October. In 2006, Democrat Ted Strickland got 76% in Mahoning County in the governor's election.

The congressman from the 17th District is Tim Ryan, a Democrat first elected in 2002 at age 29 when he beat two incumbents, one in the Democratic primary and one in the general election. Ryan grew up in Niles and graduated from Bowling Green State University. His first job was with 17th District Congressman James Traficant. In 2000, after graduating from Franklin Pierce Law Center, Ryan was elected to the state Senate. His opening to run for Congress came from Traficant’s downfall. For years Traficant was a colorful figure in the House, whose ranting orations and retro haircut (“I do my hair with a weed whacker,” he said; it turned out to be a wig) entertained C-SPAN viewers. The Democratic leadership scorned him and he voted for Dennis Hastert for speaker. Traficant was convicted on 10 counts of bribery in April 2002.

After Traficant did not file for reelection, most insiders thought the 17th District would be won by Akron-based incumbent Tom Sawyer, first elected in 1986. Ryan’s opponents seized on his two years on Traficant’s staff and accused him of everything short of wearing his denim suits. After one exchange Ryan exclaimed, “Would you guys let it go about Jim Traficant?” By standard measures, Sawyer should have won easily. He outspent Ryan by nearly 6–1. But his record on issues gave Ryan an opening. After much public agonizing Sawyer had voted for NAFTA in 1993, and he was one of the few Rust Belt Democrats to vote for normal trade relations for China in 1999 after Bill Clinton visited Akron a few days before the vote. Ryan hammered on these votes in the Mahoning Valley, where it is gospel writ that free trade exported its high-paying jobs abroad. Ryan also got the endorsement of the National Rifle Association in a district with more blue-collar hunters than upscale suburban women who abhor guns. In Summit and Portage Counties, Sawyer led Ryan 62%-16%. But that produced a margin of only 6,846 votes. In Mahoning and Trumbull Counties, which had a greater share of the population and where Sawyer had never run before, Ryan led 48%-18%. That produced a popular vote margin of 16,521. Overall Ryan beat Sawyer 41%-27%. The Republican nominee was state Representative Ann Womer Benjamin. Ryan slammed her and the Ohio Republican legislature for votes that led to higher tuitions at state universities. Republicans fired back with ads highlighting several disorderly conduct charges lodged against Ryan while he attended college. Traficant ran as an independent. But in July he was expelled from the House by a 420–1 vote, and in August he was sentenced and taken off to federal prison. The district’s Democratic leanings and Ryan’s labor support proved decisive. He won 51% of the vote to 34% for Womer Benjamin and 15% for Traficant.

Ryan has leaned to the left on economic and foreign policy, while his splits with Democrats on abortion and guns placed him in the center on social issues. With abortion rights advocate Rosa DeLauro, he filed the “Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act”; Democratic activists depicted this as a move toward party consensus on a difficult issue. Under local pressure to keep the Youngstown Air Reserve Station, with its C-130 Hercules aircraft and 2,000 employees and reservists, off the base-closing list, he co-chaired the Domestic Industrial Base Congressional Caucus; the station was a net gainer under the Pentagon’s recommendations. Worried about the loss of local call center jobs, he was one of seven members who voted against the national do-not-call list. With Armed Services Committee chairman Duncan Hunter in April 2005, he sponsored the Chinese Currency Act seeking to counter China's alleged manipulation and undervaluation of its currency. He was the youngest Democrat in the 108th Congress and worked loyally on party initiatives; Ryan often discussed issues on the House floor with Kendrick Meek in their self-styled “30-Something Working Group.” In late-night House talk-fests, he was an outspoken opponent of President Bush’s Social Security reform. But he sided with Republicans on repealing the estate tax, and on building a fence along the border with Mexico. Following the 2006 election, he was a chief backer of John Murtha in his unsuccessful bid for Majority Leader. That support helped Ryan win a seat on the Appropriations Committee, with Murtha’s backing.

Ryan has not faced serious reelection problems in the primary or general. He considered a run for the Senate in 2006, but decided against it. His interest suggested a possible bid for the seat of George Voinovich, whose term expires in 2010.

Committees

• Appropriations (33d of 37 D)
  Energy & Water Development; Labor, HHS, Education & Related Agencies.

Presidential Vote

District Demographics (More Info)

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: D +14
• Area size: 1,033 square miles
• Urban Population: 84.3%
• Rural Population: 15.7%
• Population 2000: 630,730
• Population 2005 (est): 614,164
• Median Income: $36,705
• Poverty Status: 12.3%
• Military Veterans: 14.6%
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 84.5% White; 11.6% Black; 0.7% Asian; 0.2% Native Am.; 0.0% Hawaiian; 1.2% Two+ races; 0.1% Other; 1.6% Hispanic Origin;
• Ancestry: 15.5% German%; 10.3% Irish%; 9.2% Italian%;
• Occupation: Blue collar 31.8%; White collar 51.6%; Gray collar 16.6%;