Information taken from The Citizen
A last-minute automatic phone effort by the state Democratic Party to replace jailed state Rep. James E. “Jim” Ryan on November’s ballot seems to have fallen short of its goal.
The nearly 1,400 registered Democrats in the city received a “robocall” asking them to write in Democrat Susan Scott for state representative and she received 30 votes — needing 35 for an automatic spot on November’s ballot.
“We did “robocall,” said state Democratic Party spokesman David Scannell, who said the party paid for the service. “When I asked [Democratic Party Chair] Raymond [Buckley] he said the decision was probably made some time last week.”
“I had a phone message saying they found someone to do it,” said Franklin Democratic Party Chair Larry Hennessy, who said he was made aware of the last-minute write-in attempt to place Scott on the ballot.
Hennessy said when he first learned Ryan was in jail he called around to find someone who could take his spot on the ballot should he resign, but didn’t find anyone who could make the time commitment so late in the game.
In tiny Hill, where Ryan regularly attended annual town meetings and the annual Hill Village Store picnic, he came in third with 21 votes. Incumbent Leigh Webb had 33 votes and Delaney Carrier had 24. The town did not report any write-in votes for Scott or anyone else.
In Franklin, Ryan was a relative unknown until he captured a seat in the house in 2004. He went on to become the biggest vote-getter in 2006, topping second-place finisher Republican Dennis Reed, who was raised in the city and owns a business there.
In the run-up to the 2006 election, he was the chair of the Committee to Elect Democrats and, after the party swept into power, he was rewarded with the chairmanship of the standing Committee of Transportation.
During the 2008 New Hampshire primary, Ryan headed the N.H. campaign to elect Delaware Sen. Joe Biden as president. He was arrested the night before Biden was officially nominated to be on the Democratic Presidential ticket with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. What role, if any, Ryan was to play in the presidential campaign is unknown.
On Aug. 30, four days after he was jailed, House Speaker Terie Norelli stripped him of his chairmanships. Early last week, Gov. John Lynch called for his resignation as did Webb and District 5 State Sen. Peter Burling.
Ryan, who said Sunday he had not decided if he will resign his current house seat, has been held in lieu of $9,675 cash bail in the Carroll County Department of Corrections jail since Aug. 29 — the bail amount equal to the amount of restitution left unpaid from a $35,000 ordered settlement arising from a 1992 forgery conviction.
Records indicate Ryan’s criminal record dates back to the late 1980s and spans three states. He has convictions for forgery, larceny and passing bad checks.
A 1979 graduate of Fairfield University and St. John’s University of Law in 1982, he passed the Connecticut bar exam but surrendered his license to practice law and moved to Massachusetts.
He later moved to Carroll County in New Hampshire where records show he was convicted of practicing law without a license and, in 1994, he was convicted of four counts of forgery in Carroll County Superior Court.
Hennessy, who said he is still Ryan’s friend, remains torn about the revelations.
“Politically, Jim has done more for the city of Franklin and the state than any other rep I’ve ever known,” said Hennessy.
“I think it should be up to the people to decide,” he said, adding that, if Ryan does stay on the ballot, he would support his candidacy over any of the three Republicans.